Max Verstappen finally retains his pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix following an investigation by FIA stewards into his incident in qualifying with Lando Norris.
On pole, Verstappen had given a big scare to Lando Norris on the exit of the 130R, the two drivers failing to hold on and forcing the British driver onto the grass to avoid a high-speed collision.
Stewards ruled Verstappen did not breach Sporting Regulation Article 33.4 – meaning driving slowly, erratically or dangerously which might have given him a grid penalty . He did, however, receive a reprimand – his first of the season with an unchanged starting grid.
“The driver of car 1 was aware of car 55 [Carlos Sainz] front and of the car 4 [Norris] approaching behind and decided to accelerate at exactly the same time car 4 decided to overtake car 1.”
“Unfortunately, due to a lack of tire temperature on car 1, the driver temporarily lost control of the car.”
“The driver of car 4 said it was simply an unfortunate incident, however, it is the driver’s responsibility to maintain control of his car at all times.”
“In terms of a penalty, all previous offenses of this nature have resulted in a reprimand, therefore a similar penalty is imposed in this case.”
