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Max Verstappen disagrees with the decisions made by race officials in Saudi Arabia. The Dutchman states that other drivers have made similar mistakes and that it happened to be condoned with them.
Verstappen was punished several times by race management during the Grand Prix on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. The 24-year-old was first given a five-second time penalty for an incident involving Lewis Hamilton, where they both ended up off track, and received a 10-second time penalty on top of that after the race for ‘causing a crash’. Despite that penalty, he was able to keep his second place and there is no need for the man in the short term. Verstappen nevertheless does not agree with the penalties handed out. “It is clear that certain things do not apply to everyone,” Verstappen told the media in Abu Dhabi.
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FIA measures with two standards?
“Because the things I did, in terms of defending, two other guys did while racing too. That was never mentioned and there was no penalty for that. So I don’t understand because I just thought I was racing hard was,” emphasizes the Dutchman. “What happened to me wasn’t worthy of punishment, and neither was the other two people, but I’m clearly the only one who gets punished. If you fight at the front, I think people are a bit more critical. But I get it it just doesn’t.”
Verstappen feels disadvantaged
He is then asked whether Verstappen understands how the regulations work, because of course there has been a lot of ambiguity in recent times. “If you ask me, I was not wrong, but it was clear that only I was wrong – twice,” replies Verstappen. “But other people do the exact same thing and then get nothing. We were both off the track, outside the white line in turn one, and somehow they thought it was my fault, which I don’t agree with. And then that other penalty too, I don’t agree with that either.”
Garry Connelly also in Abu Dhabi as steward of the partyread more
“Then he pushes me off the track, he even looks at me. He doesn’t turn in, he just pushes me outside the white line and he only gets a warning for that.” According to Verstappen, it is very simple. “It’s not how it should be. It’s not fair because it seems like other drivers can do certain things, and it seems like only me gets the penalty.”
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