Max Verstappen, who finished top in qualifying for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, has been summoned before the stewards for supposedly impeding Kevin Magnussen.
Verstappen dominated each of the three qualifying races on Friday at the Red Bull Ring, but he is under investigation, which may jeopardize his chance to start on Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix race on pole.
The reason for Verstappen’s summon was an “alleged violation of Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations – unnecessarily impeding.”
The alleged impeding happened at Turn 1 not long after the session resumed following the red flag triggered on by Valtteri Bottas spinning his Alfa Romeo.
At 8:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. UK time), he will meet with the stewards. If he receives a grid penalty, it will only be for the race on Sunday with Saturday serving as a separate sprint day.
Verstappen moved to the right as Magnussen approached him while beginning a flying lap in the incident that is the subject of the investigation.
Then Verstappen enquired from his engineer, “He was on a fast lap?”… “Yep, roger,” came the response from his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.
The incident was not mentioned in Magnussen’s post-qualifying print media session; instead, the Dane concentrated on a downshift problem on his final lap that put him “in the wrong gear for Turn 3” and was “very costly” for his chances of qualifying for Q1.
