Max Verstappen narrowly claimed pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, but has now been handed a one-place grid penalty by the stewards for impeding second-placed George Russell during the final part of qualifying.
It’s a pretty solid impeding penalty, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single place penalty be handed out for that.
Max didn’t react to Russell. It was not like he slammed the brake or changed his line to block Russell. Russell could and should have overtaken by going off the racing line which is what cars overtaking on prep laps usually do.
Edit : Also the maximum lap time ensures that you can’t ‘block’ the car behind for the entire the lap. You have speed up at some point to come back within the delta
Max didn’t react to Russell. It was not like he slammed the brake or changed his line to block Russell. Russell could and should have overtaken by going off the racing line which is what cars overtaking on prep laps usually do.
Edit : Also the maximum lap time ensures that you can’t ‘block’ the car behind for the entire the lap. You have speed up at some point to come back within the delta