The stewards handed Max Verstappen a five-second time penalty for crossing the pit lane exit during the Miami Grand Prix, but the sanction did not change his finishing position.
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The Red Bull driver stayed in fifth place after the race. Charles Leclerc, who finished just two-tenths of a second behind Verstappen, was later given a 20-second penalty, while Verstappen’s next-closest rival, Lewis Hamilton, crossed the line nearly ten seconds down.
Verstappen’s infringement occurred on lap seven of the 57-lap race. The stewards delayed making a decision for several hours because the initial footage did not provide a clear view of the incident.
“When the incident occurred there was limited video evidence to make a clear decision on whether an infringement had occurred,” the stewards said. “We therefore decided to investigate the incident after the race, to see if we could get better video evidence of the incident in the meantime, perhaps from other angles.”
After reviewing additional camera angles that showed the pit exit line more clearly, the stewards concluded that Verstappen’s car had crossed the solid white pit exit line. The driver explained that he had rejoined the race under full course yellow. The stewards found the outside of the front left tyre had crossed the outside of the solid white line, a breach of Appendix L, Chapter IV Article 6 c) of the International Sporting Code, and imposed a five-second penalty given the nature of the infringement.
Verstappen said after the race that he “had no idea” he had crossed the pit lane exit line.
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