Qatar GP: Max Verstappen says he ‘never gets presents’ from F1 stewards after penalty as he focuses on final races

Qatar GP: Max Verstappen says he ‘never gets presents’ from F1 stewards after penalty as he focuses on final races

With his title lead over Lewis Hamilton down to eight points from 21 just over a week ago, Max Verstappen says Red Bull will “just try to be better, and come back strong” for debut event in Jeddah; Outside chance for Verstappen to wrap up title next week to avoid final-round decider

Last Updated: 23/11/21 10:24am


Red Bull's Max Verstappen is pleased with finishing second at the Qatar GP after being given a five-place grid penalty for the race.

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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is pleased with finishing second at the Qatar GP after being given a five-place grid penalty for the race.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is pleased with finishing second at the Qatar GP after being given a five-place grid penalty for the race.

Max Verstappen says Red Bull will focus on trying to come back stronger to hit back against Mercedes at next week’s Saudi Arabian GP after a second successive defeat by Lewis Hamilton.

Meanwhile, the Dutchman said “I never get presents from them” in reference to the stewards after he was handed a five-place grid penalty ahead of Sunday’s race for failing to slow sufficiently for double-waved yellow flags at the end of qualifying.

Impressively recovering to second place in the race behind runaway winner Lewis Hamilton and now holding an advantage of just eight points ahead of his Mercedes driver with 52 to play for over the season’s concluding double-header, Verstappen said: “It’s exciting.

“I would of course have liked to make it a bigger gap, but when you don’t have the pace, it’s impossible to do that, so we’ll just try to be better, and come back strong, especially in Saudi on the street track, and then yeah, we’ll see in Abu Dhabi.”

Paul di Resta was at the SkyPad to analyse why Max Verstappen was handed a five-place grid penalty.

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Paul di Resta was at the SkyPad to analyse why Max
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