David Croft defends stewards over Max Verstappen’s 10-second penalty

Sky Sports F1 commentators David Croft and Karun Chandhok have defended the decision from the stewards after they penalised Max Verstappen with a 10-second penalty for his collision with George Russell towards the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. Both pundits agreed that this was the appropriate punishment for the driver, despite some fans of the sport questioning why further action, such as a disqualification, wasn’t taken. 

Croft backed the penalty, which saw the Dutchman drop from fifth to 10th and lose vital championship points as he works to defend his world title this season.

 “I think the 10-second penalty was right, because it was a chunk of points that got taken away,” he said on the F1 Show. “And that, to me, is damaging – and therefore is a proper punishment.

“But it’s those three penalty points – puts him on 11 now. One more penalty point, he gets a race ban. He’s got two races until his next points come off,” Croft explained.

Former Formula 1 driver Chandhok broke down the chain of events that led to the clash with the Mercedes driver, explaining that it could have been Red Bull’s choice to pit him for hard tyres that sparked the initial annoyance from Verstappen.

“I think he was surprised to go on the hard tyre,” he said. “They had no choice because they were on that three-stop. So I feel like he was surprised, but then Max was told by GP [his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase], ‘Look, we had no choice. This was the only thing we could do.’ So I think that was fine.”

Restarting the race after the safety car on hards left the four-time champion vulnerable, as rivals like Charles Leclerc and Russell saw their races continue on more suitable rubber.

“But then, the consequence of the hard tyre meant that he had that snap of oversteer on the restart. He’s lost the position to Charles; he’s annoyed that Charles has bumped into him. He had a bit of a rant on the radio about that.

“And actually, I just listened back to that section of the race – that sort of 10-minute bit of team radio – all through. And weirdly, as soon as George hits him, Max immediately comes on the radio and says, ‘That’ll be a penalty, he’s hit me.’ So he immediately says George should have a penalty.”

Verstappen was ordered to return the place to Russell, something Chandhok called “really confusing,” but his subsequent driving was “indefensible.”

“He actually gets slightly back on the throttle as well, if you listen to the onboard, which is clearly unacceptable,” he continued.

The morning after the race, Verstappen posted a message to Instagram admitting his move against Russell was wrong, but this doesn’t change the fact he’s only one penalty point away from a race ban.

“He’s got two races now to really behave himself,” Croft added, admitting he wants to see an improvement from his driving before two penalty points are removed from his licence on the 30th of this month.

“We also want to see a mature Max Verstappen on the track, and not doing things like that – because he is a better driver than this sort of thing. And he keeps getting remembered for this sort of thing. And I don’t want to see that for him.”