Christian Horner, the team boss of Red Bull, criticized the penalty imposed on Max Verstappen for his involvement in the collision with Lando Norris during the final stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. The stewards handed Verstappen a ten-second time penalty and two penalty points on his super license.
Verstappen now has four penalty points. If a driver accumulates twelve penalty points within a year, they automatically face a race suspension. However, Verstappen doesn’t need to worry about this for now.
In the closing stages of the race at the Red Bull Ring, race leader Max Verstappen and his closest rival Lando Norris collided, resulting in both drivers suffering a puncture. According to Horner, the McLaren driver was ‘too ambitious’ with his aggressive overtaking attempts.
‘Collision was Inevitable’
Horner on the incident between Verstappen and Norris: “I think the collision was inevitable given how close the racing has been in recent weeks. It’s unfortunate, as Lando had already exceeded track limits four times and would probably have received a five-second penalty. It was a racing incident, so the ten-second penalty for Max was harsh. That was very frustrating, but we are still leading in the world championship.”
Max Verstappen previously stated that ‘everything’ went wrong during the race, referring to two unfortunate pit stops among other things. Christian Horner was more lenient in his judgment. “We only lost four seconds at the last stop and then Lando had the tire advantage with a new set of mediums. Without a bad stop, we probably would have made it.”
