Max Verstappen Grid Penalty: Lance Stroll Adds Salt to Red Bull Star’s Wounds

Max Verstappen’s Sao Paulo GP weekend keeps going from bad to worse. After a penalty-affected sprint on Saturday, an unusual qualifying session under treacherous conditions saw Verstappen get knocked out of Q2, which when coupled with his impending five-place grid penalty, created the perfect recipe for disaster. As expected, he was livid.

The three-time world champion was on an out-lap when red flags came out in the second part of qualifying because Lance Stroll lost control of his Aston Martin, spun out, and hit the barriers. Verstappen, however, questioned the timing of the red flag (as he did with the Virtual Safety Car yesterday).

“The car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red. I don’t understand why it needs to take 30-40 seconds for a red flag to come out. It’s just ********,” Verstappen said to Sky Sports.

They waited 40 seconds again to throw the red flag… waiting for others to finish their laps…

— Verstappen News (@verstappenews) November 3, 2024

The stewards did wait a while to assess the situation before halting proceedings, but to be fair to them, Stroll was trying to get his car running for a few seconds. The decision-makers had to be sure that he was stuck, and out of the session, while also monitoring the damage done to the barriers.

Max: “You know, honestly, I’ll let it go. It’s so stupid anwyay to talk about, it’s *ridiculous*.”pic.twitter.com/w5YXlAfxa3

— Verstappen News (@verstappenews) November 3, 2024

Unfortunately for Verstappen, by that time, other drivers had put in better lap times, which dropped him down to P12.

That is a bad enough starting position as it is, but to make things even more difficult, Verstappen will face a further grid drop because of taking new engine components coming into Interlagos. This means Verstappen will start from P17 on the grid.

The Red Bull driver’s championship rival Lando Norris meanwhile, got into Q3 and would be vying for a pole position. Last weekend, the McLaren driver got a 10-point advantage over Verstappen.

This weekend, if he gets a similar result, which will likely be aided by Verstappen’s 17th-place start, the previously comfortable lead held by the Dutchman will start looking fragile. Norris’ deficit is currently at 44 points.