Verstappen unrepentant over penalties but Horner sees F1 in “dangerous territory” · RaceFans

Max Verstappen was unrepentant over his driving in the Mexican Grand Prix despite picking up two 10-second penalties in the space of four corners.

His Red Bull team principal Christian Horner suggested the two penalties were excessive but also sounded a warning over “divebomb” manoeuvres.

Verstappen was involved in a pair of incidents with Lando Norris on the 10th lap of the race. The stewards ruled Verstappen forced Norris off the track at turn four and left the track and gained an advantage at turn seven.

Norris was also forced off in the second incident, when Verstappen lunged down the inside of him, but the stewards did not hold the Red Bull driver responsible for that, ruling the McLaren went off “incidentally”.

Asked whether there was anything about the two incidents he would do differently in the future, Verstappen said: “Maybe get a drink in the pit stop?

“I mean, the engine was off for 20 seconds, so I had enough time.”

Verstappen largely responded to questions about his incidents by criticising his car’s pace.

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“At the end of the day, if you agree with it or not, it doesn’t matter because the penalties are given,” he told the official F1 channel. “So that is also honestly not my biggest problem of the race.

“My biggest problem was that we just had no pace, just struggling a lot on the tyres. I couldn’t really attack and I couldn’t follow Ferrari and McLaren.”

While Horner argued Verstappen’s penalties were too harsh, he also raised concerns over what he called “divebomb” moves, without specifying which driver he was referring to.

“Max didn’t leave the track at turn four, and then at seven Lando opened the door very late, they both ran off there,” Horner told Sky.

“The problem is I think we’re going to get into very dangerous territory of at what point is a divebomb going to be okay?

“So I think really the FIA and the drivers need to sit down and decide what is acceptable and what isn’t. I thought two 10-seconds was a bit on the hard side today.”

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Asked whether he would speak to Verstappen about his turn seven move, Horner said: “You’ve always got to play to the rules. We’ll look and learn from this.”