Max Verstappen's father was apparently involved in a fight with several other people in a nightclub in the Dutch town of Roermond.
De Limburger newspaper said former F1 driver Jos Verstappen suffered facial injuries in the fight when the club's staff ordered those fighting to leave.
"A man with significant injuries refused," the Dutch broadcaster 1Limburg quoted a police spokesman as saying.
Algemeen Dagblad, another Dutch newspaper, quoted Verstappen's lawyer as saying the 45-year-old was the one who was attacked.
"He was waiting to be picked up. If you are a victim, why do you have to leave?" the lawyer said, referring to Verstappen's arrest.
De Limburger said Verstappen, who has a bit of a reputation for being a hot head and who last year was involved in an altercation with his own father, said police confirmed he suffered a black eye and facial wound.
A police spokesman said the former Benetton and Minardi driver was not detained as a suspect, qualifying the fight as "a skirmish between two people, as we see many occasions like that during weekends."
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