FIA stewards explain latest Verstappen penalty

Max Verstappen has now been hit with two penalties across the São Paulo Grand Prix weekend, with the latest costing him another point to Lando Norris in the F1 drivers' standings.

On Friday, Verstappen was handed a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's race after Red Bull was forced to take another internal combustion engine for the Dutchman's RB20. That will be applied after qualifying.

The three-time F1 champion has also now been hit with a five-second post-sprint time penalty for an infringement under a virtual safety car on the final tour of the 24-lap event.

After finishing third at the chequered flag, the penalty means Verstappen has been demoted to fourth, meaning what was a 45-point cushion to Norris is now 44.

Explaining their reasoning behind their decision to hand Verstappen a penalty, a stewards' document read: "The stewards heard from the driver of car 1 (Max Verstappen), team representative and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, timing, telemetry evidence.

"Article 56.5 states in part 'All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green.”

"The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC End when the FIA light panels changed to green. This indicates a
sporting advantage gained under VSC.

"The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he
attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green.

"This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time. The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back."