Max Verstappen has picked up penalty points for his clash with Lewis Hamilton in the Italian Grand Prix, while four other drivers have also been punished. F1 title rivals Verstappen and Hamilton collided for the second time in five races at Monza as they went wheel-to-wheel into the Rettifilo chicane, with the stewards deeming that the Dutchman was predominantly to blame. Verstappen was given a three-place grid drop for the next race in Russia, along with two penalty points, the only points currently on his Super Licence. In addition to Verstappen's punishment, time penalties and penalty points were handed out to Antonio Giovinazzi, Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Nikita Mazepin, all for incidents at the Variante della Roggia chicane. Giovinazzi clashed with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on the opening lap, an incident that tipped the Alfa Romeo into a spin. The stewards determined that Giovinazzi rejoined the track in an unsafe manner, having gone off at the second chicane amid the bottleneck. "[Giovinazzi] locked his brakes entering Turn 4 and cut behind the apex of the corner," explained the stewards. "When re-joining he moved fully across to the left making contact with Car 55 [Sainz]. The Stewards considered this re-joining unsafely." Later in the race, Ocon was found guilty of not leaving Sebastian Vettel enough room at the same chicane. "Having earlier defended his position off-line, the driver of Car 31 [Ocon] failed to leave a car width between his own car and the edge of the track on the approach to the corner (as is required in the regulation) and caused the collision with Car 5 [Vettel]," read the stewards' report. Perez finished third on the road in Sunday's race but dropped back to fourth after being penalised for an illegal overtake on Charles Leclerc. The stewards' said: "Car 11 [Perez] was attempting to pass Car 16 [Leclerc] going into Turn 4. Car 11 turned behind the kerb at Turn 5 and completed the pass by doing so and gained a lasting advantage." Finally, the stewards determined that Mazepin "was predominantly at fault" for a collision with Haas teammate Mick Schumacher. All four drivers were hit with five-second time penalties and a single penalty point each. Perez now has seven points for the 12-month period, followed by Mazepin on six, Giovinazzi on three and Ocon on one.
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