Max Verstappen Faces Potential Race Ban After Spanish Grand Prix Incident

Max Verstappen finds himself teetering on the edge of a race ban after the stewards at the Spanish Grand Prix held him accountable for a collision with George Russell on Sunday.

Verstappen, penalized with a 10-second time addition during Sunday's race, ultimately finished in 10th place. The incident has also saddled him with three additional penalty points on his super license. Now, the four-time world champion stands with a total of 11 points on his super license, with Formula 1's regulations mandating that accruing 12 points within a 12-month period results in a single-race suspension.

Verstappen’s Race Ban Risk

Two of Verstappen's current 11 points are set to expire when they reach the 12-month mark on June 30. Until then, Verstappen must navigate the Canadian and Austrian Grands Prix without incurring further penalties to maintain some buffer for the remainder of the season. Another two points will expire on October 27, meaning Verstappen will remain perilously close to a ban until after the Mexican Grand Prix, provided he avoids additional penalties.

On Sunday, Verstappen collided with Russell shortly after his prospects for a podium finish were dashed by a late safety car deployment. At that moment, the Red Bull driver was running in third place but had depleted his allocation of soft and medium tires, leaving only a set of hard tires when he pitted under the safety car. This tire choice put him at a disadvantage to rivals Charles Leclerc and Russell, who had switched to soft tires under the safety car.

The Incident: Verstappen vs. Russell

Following the restart, Leclerc quickly overtook Verstappen, with Russell attempting an aggressive move into Turn 1. The Mercedes driver lost control and hit Verstappen, forcing him off-track.

Fearing a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, Red Bull's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase radioed Verstappen to surrender the position to Russell. Verstappen reluctantly eased off on the approach to Turn 5, seemingly to let Russell pass, but accelerated before the apex, resulting in a collision. The stewards deemed Verstappen entirely at fault, issuing a 10-second penalty and three penalty points.

"From the radio communications, it was clear that the driver of Car 1 [Verstappen] was asked by his team to 'give the position back' to Car 63 [Russell] for what they perceived to be an earlier breach by Car 1 for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage (in fact, we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident)," the stewards stated.

"The driver of Car 1 was clearly unhappy with his team's request to give the position back. At the approach to Turn 5, Car 1 significantly reduced its speed, appearing to allow Car 63 to overtake. However, after Car 63 got ahead of Car 1 at the entry of Turn 5, Car 1 suddenly accelerated and collided with Car 63. The collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1. We therefore imposed a 10-second time penalty on Car 1."

Meanwhile, stewards noted that the initial Turn 1 collision did not warrant further action, absolving Verstappen from needing to concede his track position initially.

Regulations and Penalty Points

The last driver penalized with a race ban for accumulating 12 penalty points was Haas' Kevin Magnussen, who missed last year's Azerbaijani Grand Prix. Points can be attributed for minor infractions such as driving too slowly during a cooldown lap, failing to maintain the required distance behind the safety car, or speeding under a virtual safety car.

Impact on Verstappen’s Championship Hopes

Verstappen’s championship ambitions took a blow in Spain, with his 10th-place finish dropping him 49 points below current standings leader Oscar Piastri. He refrained from directly commenting on the incident post-race, although Russell criticized Verstappen, suggesting the Dutchman was setting a poor example for the younger generation.

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