Max Verstappen has slammed Formula 1’s stewards following their decision to hand him a five-second time penalty for his last lap overtake on Kimi Raikkonen in the US Grand Prix.
Verstappen battled back from 16th on the grid to contest for the final spot on the podium in the closing stages. He passed Raikkonen at Turn 17 on the final lap, crossing the line in third place.
However, the stewards deemed that Verstappen had made the move illegally, having passed Raikkonen by exceeding track limits. The decision demoted the 20-year-old to fourth place.
This was the first instance where a track limits infringement had been penalised across the course of the weekend.
“I mean everyone is running wide including himself [Raikkonen] everywhere,” said Verstappen. “Turn 9 for example, you can run wide. Turn 19 you can go off the track and nobody would say anything.
“It’s the same with Bottas [earlier in the race]. I went for a move and he continued outside the track and came back and I really had to pass him again and nothing has been done against that, while he definitely gained an advantage.
“If he had made the track he would have been behind me. So it’s not good for the sport and they have to be really clear in the rules in not allowing it anywhere.”
Verstappen added; “We had a great race but of course with those stupid decisions you really kill the sport. I really hope the fans didn’t like this decision and hopefully next year they [the decisions] won’t come.”
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was similarly perplexed by the stewarding inconsistencies.
“He did it the hard way. We’ve seen cars off track all day today, all weekend, so to penalise him at this stage, that’s not right,” he said when speaking with Sky Sports immediately after the stewards verdict had been issued.
“We’ll have a look at it, but for me it was fair, hard racing.”
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