Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says he feels oppressed after a driving punishment dropped him from third to fourth at the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was punished for running wide at Turn One under weight from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and not giving over the place.
Verstappen said he didn’t comprehend why possible champ Lewis Hamilton was not punished for a comparable episode. Verstappen said: “Yeah, more or less. Yeah, at the moment, kind of. Or at least I am not. Ridiculous,” he added. “In lap one, Turn One, the first two go off and if they don’t get a penalty, that’s fine for me. OK, we race. But then why do they penalise me at the end of the race? That’s very unfair.”
Verstappen has been reprimanded intensely by opponents this year for his protective strategies, which prompted to a govern elucidation at the past race in America that unequivocally prohibited drivers changing line in the braking zone on the off chance that it prompted to the assaulting driver taking sly activity. Hamilton’s team-mate Nico Rosberg likewise ran wide off track at the primary corner and held second place in the wake of slamming into Verstappen as the Red Bull attempted to surpass.
“I want to look at it again; he [Ricciardo] told me to. I am fighting hard and am supposed to give him just enough room,” Vettel said.
“I know Daniel is sometimes optimistic going for a gap. I knew he would go for it whatever the cost. I tried to defend; we made contact. That is not ideal. That’s why I want to look at it again.
“If there was something, I will talk to him. Before that, Max was brake-testing me into the first two corners. I was very upset with the fact Max held me up and didn’t move and made me run into Daniel.”
Verstappen had at first been downgraded to fifth, with Vettel having his spot on the platform.
Be that as it may, Vettel was later given a 10-second time punishment by stewards subsequent to being regarded to have altered course under braking while shielding from the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo in the end laps of the race, dropping the four-time title holder to fifth. “It is ridiculous what he did,” Verstappen said. “I have never done something like that, even close. Because I have moved under braking but that was when the car was still 10-15m behind me. To keep turning when there is a car already next to you, that shouldn’t be the case.” Verstappen added: “He is just a very frustrated guy. He is shouting on the radio like a child and to do things like that is even more childish.”
