Max Verstappen receives FIA warning for Monaco GP incident, Norris reprimanded

Three leading F1 drivers made their way to the FIA ​​stewards ahead of qualifying in Monaco, including championship leader Max Verstappen.

Two incidents during the third and final practice session in Monte Carlo caught the attention of the race director and led to summonses for Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren.

Max Verstappen summoned for driving too slowly

After a tough Friday in Monte Carlo, where Red Bull struggled to get its RB20 into a comfortable window for both its drivers, Max Verstappen’s difficult weekend continued on Saturday.

Several of the Dutch driver’s fastest laps were marred by heavy traffic, potentially affecting his outright speed as he finished two-tenths of a second off the pace of leader Charles Leclerc.

But after running into traffic on his final flying lap in the final minute of free practice three and slowing down on track, Verstappen was cited for an alleged breach of Article 33.4 of the FIA ​​F1 Sporting Regulations – driving unnecessarily slowly on track. The exact article states: “At no time shall a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner that could be considered potentially dangerous to other drivers or other persons.”

Before qualifying, the race stewards announced their verdict: Verstappen received a warning for his slow driving style.

“Race control consulted the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen) and a team representative and reviewed video footage, team radio and video evidence from the car. It concluded that Car 1 was on a fast lap and had to abort due to traffic at Turn 17,” the statement said.

“He was then told by the team to take the chequered flag. Some time passed between this instruction and the chequered flag. He said he also saw on the TV screens that there were 20 seconds left until the end of the session. He then left the racing line at the exit of Turn 19 and stayed on the far left, well off the racing line, until he took the chequered flag for the session.

“He drove extremely slowly, at times at just 20 km/h. Although his behaviour was not dangerous and did not hinder other drivers, he drove unnecessarily slowly on the start-finish straight and this is a violation of Article 33.4 of the FIA ​​Formula 1 Sporting Regulations.

“We are therefore issuing a warning to the driver of car 1 for this violation.”

The FIA ​​Stewards this weekend are Nish Shetty, Matthew Selley, Derek Warwick and Jean-Francois Calmes.

More F1 news about the Monaco Grand Prix

👉 Beware of jumpers: FIA sets new rule for driver etiquette in the overtaking lane

👉 Max Verstappen: Red Bull is stuck in setup problems, Ferrari picks up the pace

Lando Norris reprimanded for incident with George Russell

Separately, George Russell and Lando Norris were summoned under the same article of the sporting regulations, albeit for a different incident.

Norris was on a flying lap, making his way through the tunnel, when he encountered a slow-driving Russell on the racing line, who shot back into the daylight, forcing the McLaren driver to brake suddenly.

Norris let his feelings out as he drove past Russell. Over the radio he called all the drivers “idiots” and then added good-naturedly: “Not all of them, just some of them.”

His engineer replied: “I’m not going to ask you to say which ones are and which ones aren’t,” as the Miami GP winner slowly returned to the pits after his lap was ruined.

Although it seemed that Russell would be the one to get in trouble with the stewards, the FIA ​​stewards decided to penalise Norris instead. The British driver received a warning for harassing Russell, his second warning of the season.

“The race control has heard from the driver of car 4 (Lando Norris), the driver of car 63 (George Russell) and team representatives and reviewed video footage, team radio and video footage from inside the car. It has concluded that car 4 deliberately drove towards car 63 to express its displeasure at having its lap at the tunnel exit on the approach to turn 10 affected by car 63,” he said.

“Although the maneuver in this case was not dangerous, such an action could potentially lead to a dangerous situation and should be avoided. We are therefore issuing a warning to the driver of car 4.”

Russell finished the session with the sixth fastest time, Norris was eighth – the two were separated by just 0.020 seconds.

Continue reading: Monaco GP: Leclerc’s home dream burns bright in FP3, but Max Verstappen is not ruled out