Whiting wants a word with Verstappen over Monza penalty!

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FIA race director Charlie Whiting is planning to have a talk with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen about the penalty that was handed out at the end of the Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen had been battling Valtteri Bottas for third place when the pair clashed on lap 44 heading into the first chicane.

Bottas claimed that the Red Bull had moved under braking and not left enough room on the outside for Bottas, who had made contact with Verstappen's left rear as a result.

The race stewards reviewed the incident and agreed with the Finn. He was handed a five second time penalty, which not only handed third place to Bottas but also demoted Verstappen to fifth behind Sebastian Vettel.

"They are doing a great job of killing racing, honestly," Verstappen said over the team radio as he fumed over the decision. He still refused to yield track position to Bottas despite the looming penalty.

"After I heard about the penalty I was even more determined to keep my track position," he said afterwards. "No way he was going to get past me. At least he knows how the rear of my car looks!"

Verstappen hasn't changed his mind on Monza penalty

Whiting said he expected nothing less than outrage from Verstappen on the matter, and said he planned to talk with the driver before the next race in Singapore.

“I don’t think you can take too much notice of comments made in the heat of battle," Whiting told Motorsport.com "In the heat of battle, that’s absolutely expected.

"But I’m sure at the next drivers’ briefing we’ll have a little chat about that."

It had been the second close call between Verstappen and Bottas in the race. In the earlier incident, Verstappen had locked up under pressure from the Mercedes and ended up straight-lining the chicane.

He was able to maintain position while following all the correct procedures for returning to the track. Even so, he was warned by his race engineer at the time that he had used up his 'joker' with regards to the stewards.

Whiting insisted that the earlier matter hadn't affected the penalty decision.

“They were unconnected,” Whiting confirmed. “The 'joker', as you put it, was cutting the chicane - not actually gaining a place, but staying in front by virtue of cutting the chicane. Which is an advantage of sorts.

“We told the teams that we would normally give the driver one free one. Unless of course, let’s just say, he cut the chicane the first time and gained five seconds and kept it. We wouldn’t let him have that one.

“This one he just stayed in front of Bottas," he continued. "You could in theory do that every lap and say 'I didn’t gain a position', but you stayed in front because you cut the chicane."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.