Why Verstappen lost Qatar pole position with unusual grid penalty

The F1 stewards have explained why they opted to issue Max Verstappen a one-place grid penalty for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Verstappen set the fastest lap time at the end of Q3 at the Lusail International Circuit to secure his first pole position since June.

However, he was summoned to the stewards who launched an investigation into the Dutchman for driving too slowly.

Verstappen had a near-miss with Russell in the situation, with the Mercedes driver now inheriting pole position - his fourth of the season.

Explaining why it decided to punish Verstappen, the F1 stewards said: “Car 1 [Verstappen] was on a different preparation strategy to that of Car 63 [Russell]. 

“Car 1 was well outside of the delta and the driver of Car 1 explained he had let Cars 4 and 14 past. 

“The driver of Car 63 claimed that he had adhered to the delta and did not expect Car 1 to be on the racing line. He stated that if a car was going slow in a high speed corner, it should not be on the racing line. 

“The Stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly Car 1 did not comply with the Race Director’s Event Notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances. 

“It was obvious the driver of Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. 

“He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12. Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. 

“Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual 3 grid position penalty, however in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap.”