Max Verstappen finished P6 in the Mexico City Grand Prix as his championship battle with Lando Norris got extremely hectic on track.
After getting overtaken by Carlos Sainz for the lead on lap 9, Verstappen came under pressure from Norris. The McLaren driver tried to go around the outside at turn 4 but was pushed off, maintaining the position as he was ahead at the apex.
In a rather wild move to try and regain P2, the 27-year-old lunged into turn 7 and sent both cars off the circuit.
He was ultimately hit with a 20-second penalty as he picked up 10 for the two separate incidents.
Speaking afterwards, the three-time defending World Champion would not be drawn into it, instead focusing on the car’s lack of pace.
“You know, honestly, 20 seconds is a lot, but I’m not going to cry about it, and I’m also not going to share my opinion.
“The biggest problem that I have is that today was a bad day in terms of race pace. That was quite clear again on the mediums and on the hard tyres.”
Pushed on the incidents, Verstappen was not prepared to go into detail, again focusing on the lack of speed the RB20 had.
“Yeah, I mean, I just felt that the turn four was a bit more of like a question mark. Turn seven is what it is. Honestly, those two things are also not my problem.
“The problem is that we are too slow and that’s why I’m being put in those kind of positions. That is my problem.”
Regarding his relationship with Norris, Verstappen believes that is okay.
“We didn’t touch. We’re just racing hard.”
On the GPDA meeting that took place on Friday, the Red Bull driver stated everyone speaks for themselves, and he will be changing his style when the new driving guidelines are drawn up.
“I mean, at the end of the day, everyone speaks for themselves.
“Of course, can the rules be better? Maybe yes, maybe not. It’s always the same thing.
“I mean, I just drive how I think I have to drive.
“Last week, that was alright. This week, 20-second penalty. That’s what it is.
“Life goes on, you know.
“Honestly, it’s also not at my interest [if things changed over the last week regarding decisions]. I just keep racing.”
Asked if the time penalties this year are too severe, the 5-time Mexico winner quipped about increasing them to 20-second per incident next season.
“Let’s try 20 next year.
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter. I have no opinion.”
Verstappen pitted quite early as his mediums fell off and looked set to be overtaken by Norris for 3rd. Ultimately he made his way back through to P6, but he never looked close to getting the squabbling Mercedes duo.
In fact, Kevin Magnussen closed a lot in the final laps, with the Dane finishing only 4s behind.
“I mean, to get back to sixth was alright, but then I couldn’t even fight the Mercedes cars in front. I just had no grip. I was just sliding a lot. I couldn’t brake.
“So yeah, it was a very tough one.”
Red Bull looked to have made a breakthrough in Austin with the car. However, the race pace and tyre degradation in Mexico was back to pre-Singapore levels.
“I mean, we’re trying [to fix things], Austin was more promising. Here, again, it was a bit more tough.
“So, it’s a bit odd, but a few things to look at.
“And hopefully, of course, in Brazil we can be more competitive.”
Friday was a mess for the Dutchman as he got very little running in, and he was unsure as to whether a clear day would have helped him on Sunday.
“Maybe. I mean, it definitely doesn’t help for the weekend.
“But yeah, it was just in general quite a poor weekend.”
Despite losing 10 points to Norris in the end, Verstappen holds a 47-point lead with four Grands Prix and two Sprints to go.
He seemed relatively calm about the situation afterwards.
“Yeah, I mean, still 47 points.
“Hopefully, we can just be a little bit more competitive.”
