Max Verstappen was found speeding in the Monza pit lane during Friday’s Italian Grand Prix practice, and Red Bull received a fine as a result.
When it comes to drivers speeding in the pit lane, the F1 stewards typically have a zero-tolerance attitude, therefore they penalized Red Bull after Verstappen violated the speed limit in Italian GP’s Friday practice.
All drivers are always made aware in advance of each race weekend that the standard limit of 80kph would be enforced during Friday’s practice session. However, Verstappen went at 84.8 km/h during the second practice session of the day, as determined by the sensors.
The reigning world champion was denied an exemption as the stewards always have a zero-tolerance stance when it comes to breaking that particular rule.
His Red Bull squad was consequently fined £428 in accordance with the £84.60 per kph system used to determine the right amount of a fine.
Verstappen won’t get penalized for the violation because he was only slightly over the limit. The race that took place in practice also spared him the pain of a more severe punishment, since there was no advantage the Dutchman gained from the move.
The double world champion’s session was not very easy overall. In the first session of the day, he set the fastest time, but as he experimented with different setups in FP2, he could only manage to finish fifth fastest.
“We’ve been trying a few different wing levels and I think we still need to analyse a bit what way to go,” Verstappen said after the session.
“It’s sometimes a bit of a tricky thing around Monza. From my side, it probably could have been a little bit better.
“So, [we’re] still fine-tuning a bit the low-speed to the high-speed, but I’m quite confident, of course, that we’ll get there.
“Also, I was a bit interrupted in FP2 to get a proper read on a few things, [so there’s] still a bit of work to do.”
Verstappen mentioned a few of them, including the moment when Sergio Perez spun at the last corner and landed his Red Bull in the gravel. While doing so, he damaged his car slightly and left team boss Christian Horner dissatisfied, although the Mexican downplayed the incident’s ramifications.
“I understeered off at the exit and tried to keep it nailed,” Perez explained. “I thought I had it under control but then I touched a little bit the gravel and that was game over.
“It doesn’t look too bad, the damage – it was fairly small, and I don’t think we lost anything there at the end, two laps, so nothing representative in that regard.”
