Red Bull Avoids Grid Drop for Miami Grand Prix Sprint Race

Max Verstappen has managed to avoid a grid drop for Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix sprint race, following an investigation into his outlap. The Aston Martin driver, Lance Stroll, encountered Verstappen on the racing line during the first qualifying phase, which Stroll felt cost him a spot in the next stage.

Allegations of Slow Driving and Stewards’ Investigation

Verstappen was summoned to the stewards for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly. The FIA’s sporting regulations state that no car should be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically, or in a manner potentially dangerous to other drivers. After speaking with Verstappen and his team representative, the stewards determined that there was a programming error on Verstappen’s dashboard showing the wrong time.

The team explained that the car had an offset of 6 seconds in the displayed delta time. Although Verstappen was managing his speed consistently, he was six seconds above the maximum delta time due to this error. The stewards felt that Verstappen did not cause a dangerous situation and therefore penalizing him was unnecessary.

Instead, Red Bull itself received a reprimand for failing to ensure correct timing information was displayed in the car. In their full verdict, the FIA race stewards explained their decision-making process, stating that Verstappen’s driving did not meet the criteria for a penalty due to the incorrect information he had in his car.

Verstappen will keep his fourth place on the grid for Saturday’s 19-lap sprint, while Stroll starts down in 16th. Stay tuned for the latest F1 Miami Grand Prix news, expert analysis, photos, and videos. Join us for Sunday’s watch along on Race Center Live by signing up here.