Max Verstappen and George Russell given extra F1 punishment by Las Vegas GP stewards

Both Max Verstappen and George Russell got in-race punishments at the Las Vegas Great Prix, yet their standard breaking prompted a subsequent discipline on top of the time added on to their races

Max Verstappen and George Russell were both given additional disciplines on top of their time punishments at the Las Vegas Great Prix.

Both drivers received in-race punishments for their conduct on track during the night race in Sin City. And both incidents happened to involved Dutchman Verstappen who was at the centre of the action before going on to win for the 18th time in 2023. He was punished for the first thing he did after the lights went out. He got a slightly better launch than pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and they went into the first corner side-by-side.

But Verstappen on the inside ran wide and off the track, pushing the Ferrari over the white line as well. The stewards took their time over the incident and Red Bull did not feel the need for their driver to give the place back. Eventually, it was decided that a five-second time penalty for the triple world champion would be appropriate.

And Russell later received the exact same punishment for causing a collision with Verstappen. The Red Bull racer was working his way back up the leaderboard after pitting and serving his penalty when he came across the Brit on track.

He attempted to overtake on the inside but the Mercedes turned into him, apparently unaware he was there. It caused front wing damage which ultimately did not cost Verstappen too much performance, but the stewards felt it warranted a penalty for Russell regardless.

Verstappen won the race after serving his penalty while Russell did not pit before the end, meaning the five seconds was added on to his time. He was fourth on the road as he took the chequered flag but dropped to eighth once it was applied.

On top of those punishments, both drivers have also had penalty points added to their race licences. Verstappen’s was clean so he has just two in total now, while Russell is up to four – both still well off the threshold of 12 which would trigger a one-race ban.

The two drivers conceded they merited their disciplines. Verstappen said: “I didn’t intend to drive Charles over the track, yet I was unable to dial back. I continued to slide on four wheels, wide. So that is the reason we needed to go wide. At that point, likewise from adrenaline, I was not content with the choice. Yet, glancing back at it, that was presumably the right call.”

Also, Russell made sense of: “The episode with Max was absolutely my issue. I didn’t see him, he was absolutely in my vulnerable side circumventing Turn 11. I wasn’t actually expecting the surpass there since we have the huge long candid with the DRS subsequently. We were on course for a simple platform then, at that point, it was really direct. So we recuperated to P4, however at that point the five-second punishment wrecks us to P8.”