Why Verstappen blamed Gasly for “dangerous” formation lap near-miss · RaceFans

Max Verstappen accused Pierre Gasly of causing a “dangerous” situation shortly before the original start of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver, who won Sunday’s race, came close to colliding with Franco Colapinto at the exit of turn 14 as the field arrived at the grid at the end of the first formation lap. Verstappen slammed on the brakes but couldn’t avoid passing the Williams and the Haas of Oliver Bearman on its right.

A surprised Verstappen exclaimed: “Woah, woah, woah!” on his radio. “The Alpine was stopped there, mate,” he told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

“Blind corner, stopped around it, so dangerous.” Nico Hulkenberg also passed the pair, and Verstappen, but made no comment on his radio.

The situation occured as the start of the race was plunged into confusion after Lance Stroll spun and came to a stop on the formation lap. The drivers ahead of Verstappen were preparing to take their places on the grid as he caught up on them.

Gasly had qualified 13th on the grid, four places ahead of Verstappen, and one behind Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull. The Alpine driver did not drop back noticeably far from the cars ahead of him during his progress to his starting position. However he did ask his race engineer John Howard to “check everything is okay at the rear because the steering is a bit bent.”

The other drivers around him were not especially slow to line up either. However several of them took up the wrong starting positions, beginning with Verstappen’s team mate.

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Perez was supposed to line up 12th, directly behind Stroll in 10th, though the Aston Martin was stuck in a gravel trap. Red Bull told Perez a car had stopped, but did not point out it was Stroll, and that the grid slot in front of his would therefore be empty. Perez parked his car in Stroll’s 10th place spot and either did not notice he was in the wrong place or chose not to draw attention to it.

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Lewis Hamilton then parked in Perez’s spot and, shortly afterwards, realised something was wrong. “Am I in the wrong spot?” he asked Peter Bonnington. “I’m missing someone. I think I’m in the wrong spot.”

Next, Colapinto re-passed Verstappen and initially pulled up in his correct spot, leaving a gap in front of him where Hamilton’s car should have been. Then he too pulled forwards, prompting Verstappen to observe “Colapinto just parked in the wrong grid spot.”

Verstappen and Hulkenberg’s too-rapid arrival at the rear of the grid appeared to be less a result of this confusion, more due to their pace on the warm-up lap. The Red Bull driver allowed more of a gap to open up in front of him at the exit of the Bico de Pato, the slowest corner on the track, and accelerated almost continuously from Juncao until he reached the back of the grid.

Hulkenberg behind him did much the same, but despite backing off more at turn 13, he was still unable to stop his car before passing three others, including Verstappen’s. Zhou Guanyu followed along behind them more cautiously and made no such mistake.

The original start was then aborted. By the time of the final formation lap, rain had begun to fall and Verstappen, Hulkenberg and the rest approached the grid more cautiously.

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The stewards, seemingly preoccupied by the confusion caused by Stroll’s spin and the front row starters setting off when they weren’t supposed to, did not note any of these incidents as infringements. However had the original race start gone ahead, Perez, Hamilton and Colapinto would have been at risk of penalties for starting in the wrong positions.