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The start of the Formula 1 season met expectations, Red Bull overtook Mercedes’ lead and every detail was decisive in the battle for victory. In the end, Lewis Hamilton rejoiced in a close push, but he did not win the triumph on the track.
In the final rounds of the race, Max Verstappen pulled his opponent down every meter. Eleven laps newer tires gave him more speed and hope for a successful overtaking maneuver, as he had hoped. Four laps before the finish, in the fourth turn, he could use the DRS system. With the back wing open, he ran past Hamilton.
He went around his opponent on the outside, but his wheels slipped slightly and he got into the escape zone with the car, all four wheels behind the curb. In this, the interpretation of the rules is unclear and before the race, the riders even thought that he would not be punished for such a maneuver. However, the stewards were of a different race – already during it, they warned Hamilton not to go off the track again, otherwise he will be punished. And now they had to decide what to do with Verstappen.
The Dutch left the track in the same place where Hamilton usually did it until halfway through the grand prize. But from about the middle of the race, the commissioners started to watch over it, and Verstappen actually paid for the fact that his opponent easily “specified the rules” during the race by persistently driving to the curb.
The command on the radio sounded clear, he had already come on the straight behind the tenth turn: “Let Hamilton back in front of you.” It was the decisive moment of the race, he could not approach in the remaining three laps. A recording of Verstappen’s radio communication with the head of Red Bull showed that the Dutchman was not satisfied with the decision and did not want to return the position. He would rather get a five-second penalty at the finish line, which usually comes into play in the event of such a misdemeanor.
