Max Verstappen Kimi Raikkonen overtook Kimi Raikkonen in a grandiose way during the US Grand Prix in 2017. His action, however, was penalized, and Formula 1 steward Garry Connelly has not left in the cold clothes.
During the last lap of the race in Austin, the Dutchman decided to take the plunge and Ferraridriver Raikkonen to catch up. It was a third place and so there was a lot at stake. With brilliant action on the inside of the corner, Verstappen managed to pass the world champion and all the fans and the team were ecstatic. However, the stewards frequently watched the overtaking moment and decided that the Red Bull driver had left the circuit and thus gained an advantage. Verstappen could count on a time penalty of five seconds, which meant that he had to give up his podium place at the very last moment. As you can imagine, or perhaps remember, this caused a lot of commotion.
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Connelly remembers it all too well. “Boy, we’ve had a lot of criticism. We were the number one public enemy in the Netherlands and all Red Bull fans around the world were furious. Many other people felt the same,” he quoted the moment during an FIA. web conference on Saturday. According to the steward, the stewards’ priority is to take into account the consequences for parties that may have lost something. “In making any decision, we must demonstrate a responsibility not to just look at the side of the alleged perpetrator. It is important to think about those who have been affected,” quotes Autosport him. The Verstappen example has stayed with him the most.
Max Verstappen made a brilliant move, a great move, on Kimi Raikkonen. And he overtook him, I think it was the third last corner. We had Mika Salo as our driver steward and Mika sees very quickly what is going on on the racetrack. He immediately told us that it was a brilliant move by Max, but that he went about a meter off the track on the inside of the corner. He left the track to catch up, “Connelly clarifies. As brilliant as the action was, a penalty had to be handed out. This was not easy, according to the steward:” That was probably one of the most difficult decisions I ever had to make with my colleagues. ”However, he still supports the decision, no matter how bad it was at the time.
