Brazil GP: What grid position does Max Verstappen have after his penalty?
The Red Bull driver was hit with two 10-second penalties in Mexico last weekend before a sixth-placed finish
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Your support makes all the difference.Max Verstappen has been hit by a five-place grid penalty for the Brazil Grand Prix on Sunday.
After being knocked out in Q2 in qualifying on Sunday - due to misfortune after a late red flag - Verstappen qualified 12th-fastest. That means he will start the race in P17.
Red Bull put a new engine in his car ahead of the race in Sao Paulo and left the garage early in practice on Friday.
The Dutch driver finished fourth in the Saturday sprint race after receiving a five-second penalty post-race for a VSC infringement, dropping him back behind Charles Leclerc. Lando Norris now trails him by 44 points in the world championship ahead of qualifying at Interlagos on Sunday morning.
It is the fourth penalty in two races for Verstappen after two 10-second penalties in Mexico due to separate incidents with title rival Lando Norris.
Those setbacks saw Verstappen, who leads the Formula 1 drivers’ standings, finish sixth. Norris won the Saturday sprint, leading home a McLaren one-two.
Those weren’t the only issues for the Dutch-Belgian, either. Verstappen was forced to change engines ahead of Saturday’s final practice, and although he avoided a penalty by using an engine within his existing set of power units, he has not delayed the penalty for long.
Verstappen, 27, complained about the performance of his replacement engine on Sunday.
Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko suggested this is a likely move, too. He told ORF: “The engine we had in there [for the Mexican GP] was no longer intended for the race.
“The older an engine gets, the more its performance diminishes [...] We saw that we were missing 3-8kph on the straights.
“The penalty would be five places. That wouldn’t be so severe in Brazil, for example, where you can overtake relatively easily.”
Verstappen, who has won the last three F1 drivers’ titles, served an engine penalty at the Belgian GP in July, dropping 10 places on the grid. However, he recovered from an 11th-place start to finish fourth.
Verstappen leads McLaren’s Norris by 44 points with four races left this year. Norris finished second in Mexico, picking up 18 points compared to Verstappen’s eight for coming sixth. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz took home the race win.
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