Max Verstappen takes three minutes to touch a rival and make him spin: he escapes the sanction in the GT World Challenge
Max Verstappen made it clear that he is not going to the final round of the GT World Challengee for a walk or on vacation. Instead of resting at home after a demanding F1 treble and before three more F1 races in a row, the Dutchman is leading his own team, the Verstappen Racing, behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO due to the absences of two of its drivers, Dani Juncaella and Jules Gounon, who this weekend compete in Barcelona in the World Endurance Championship.
He did it at the beginning. He went out to ride first in the first free practice sessions and, when only three minutes had passed, on his first lap in Portimaotraffic was found.
When trying to overtake on the inside, he touched a rival and caused him to spin, specifically, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II number 25 which at that time was piloted by Ezequiel Pérez.
Max He did not understand that the car involved, which was on the outside, did not see him when he was trying to overtake him on the inside. His anger was clear in the interior camera of his car, as Max was seen perplexed, raising his hand at this action.
The commissioners’ decision
Max’s touch caused the Dutchman to be investigated by the stewards. However, they finally decided to impose a reprimand. In this way, Verstappen was saved from a sanction before qualifying this Saturday (6:30 p.m.).
The driver of car #25 said he was focused on the cars in front of him, and couldn’t see car #3 to his right. He considered it to be an unfortunate racing incident.
“The driver of the #25 car said he was focused on the cars in front of him, and could not see the #3 car to his right. He considered it an unfortunate racing incident. The driver of car #3 explained that he tried to overtake, hoping that car #25 would stay on the outside of the corner, and that he was surprised when it turned to the inside.”explains the information note from the commissioners.
Car 3 caused an avoidable collision and was solely responsible for the incident
The stewards considered that Verstappen “caused an avoidable collision” and that he was “solely responsible for the incident”, but “They took into account as mitigating circumstances that the incident was on the first lap of the first free practice session and that the queue of cars preceding the #25 affected its layout.” For this, they gave him a reprimand. That is, a warning, but no sanction.
