The Dutchman escaped the penalty for driving “unnecessarily slow” before his qualifying lap in the 2024 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen took pole position at his team’s home circuit, but was under investigation for exiting the pitlane too slowly before his final lap when his engine began to fail.
This came in within article 33.4 of the sports regulationswhich states that “at no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which may be considered potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.” That has happened several times in the past, but as the reigning champion appeared to be going slowly even as he passed the pit lane, the stewards considered that such an “incident could, in different circumstances, potentially prevent other drivers from setting a lap time at the end of a session.”
After viewing the onboard video and timing data, the stewards chose not to take further action, as “despite the fact that car 1 exited the pits slowly and opened a gap of approximately 14 seconds with the car in front”, The stewards determined “that in this case no other cars were directly affected by this in their attempts to set a lap time.”
Mercedes, meanwhile, was fined €5,000 for accidentally allowing Lewis Hamilton to take a jack and an exhaust extractor into the pitlane as he left his garage at the start of Q3: “The stewards acknowledge that the team immediately informed the driver to stop to avoid further damage and/or a dangerous situation.”
Haas also received a caution for Nico Hulkenberg’s Q1 incident for cutting into the fast lane of the pitlane, but no further action was taken and the German retains his result despite the fact that this was repeated in Q1 with Sergio Perez waiting for him to make way for him to enter the circuit.
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