Max Verstappen and George Russell were both given extra punishments on top of their time penalties at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Both drivers received in-race punishments for their conduct on track during the night race in Sin City. And both incidents happened to involved Dutchman Verstappen who was at the centre of the action before going on to win for the 18th time in 2023. He was punished for the first thing he did after the lights went out. He got a slightly better launch than pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and they went into the first corner side-by-side.
But Verstappen on the inside ran wide and off the track, pushing the Ferrari over the white line as well. The stewards took their time over the incident and Red Bull did not feel the need for their driver to give the place back. Eventually, it was decided that a five-second time penalty for the triple world champion would be appropriate.
And Russell later received the exact same punishment for causing a collision with Verstappen. The Red Bull racer was working his way back up the leaderboard after pitting and serving his penalty when he came across the Brit on track.
He attempted to overtake on the inside but the Mercedes turned into him, apparently unaware he was there. It caused front wing damage which ultimately did not cost Verstappen too much performance, but the stewards felt it warranted a penalty for Russell regardless.
Verstappen won the race after serving his penalty while Russell did not pit before the end, meaning the five seconds was added on to his time. He was fourth on the road as he took the chequered flag but dropped to eighth once it was applied.
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On top of those punishments, both drivers have also had penalty points added to their race licences. Verstappen's was clean so he has just two in total now, while Russell is up to four - both still well off the threshold of 12 which would trigger a one-race ban.
Both drivers admitted they deserved their punishments. Verstappen said: "I didn't mean to push Charles off the track, but I couldn't slow down. I kept sliding on four wheels, wide. So that's why we had to go wide. At the time, also from adrenaline, I was not happy with the decision. But, looking back at it, that was probably the right call."
And Russell explained: "The incident with Max was totally my fault. I didn't see him, he was totally in my blind spot going around Turn 11. I wasn't really expecting the overtake there because we've got the big long straight with the DRS afterward. We were on course for an easy podium then, it was pretty straightforward. So we recovered to P4, but then the five-second penalty knocks us down to P8."