Martin Brundle calls for Verstappen ‘drive-through’ penalty after Mexican GP ‘silliness’

Max Verstappen would have received a drive-through penalty at the Mexican Grand Prix, had Martin Brundle had his way.

It was a chaotic start to the Mexican Grand Prix with various drivers missing the opening corners throughout the pack. No further action was taken by the stewards after the dust had settled, but Brundle believes that Verstappen should have got a “drive-through” penalty for his role, in order to set “a proper deterrent to stop the silliness”.

Did Max Verstappen deserve a Mexican GP drive-through penalty?

Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen found themselves going four-wide into the opening corner. Only Norris and Hamilton kept it on the track out of that quartet, with Leclerc and Verstappen requiring the run-off. Leclerc returned in the lead, but quickly relinquished it to Norris, who went on to win in dominant fashion. Verstappen ended up fourth.

The stewards decided to take no further action on the various instances of corner cutting, though Brundle, speaking on Sky F1’s ‘The F1 Show’ podcast, said Leclerc “100 per cent” should have received a penalty.

He added: “For me, at least Charles made an attempt at Turn 1, didn’t like the look of the way it was shaping up, so just ignore Turn 2. And that, for me, was a 10-second penalty.”

So, that was Leclerc, but Brundle argued that a stronger penalty should have been sent Verstappen’s way. A “drive-through” penalty for Verstappen would have been in order, Brundle feels, as a way of Race Control taking a stand against the “silliness” seen at the Mexican GP start.

A drive-through is one of the more severe penalties which the stewards have available, and requires a driver to go through the pit-lane, at the speed limit. Carlos Sainz received that sanction in Mexico for a second count of pit-lane speeding.

“Max should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far left in four abreast, it will go on the kerb. But Max had no intention. You can see Max accelerate,” Brundle argued.

“Really skilful driving through the grass, I must say. But Max made no effort whatsoever to take turns one, two or three, and that should have been a penalty.

“Max took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on. The sort of thing if the fireproof boot had been on the other foot, Max would have been screaming about on the radio, saying he had no intention of making that corner. He didn’t.

“I might even have given somebody doing what Max did, a drive-through, as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness, because then it all gets chaotic.

“I completely can understand those drivers that were minding their business actually staying on the racetrack, going like, ‘Well, hang on, I’m losing out here. I might as well have just made my own race track up in the first few corners and gain some gain places.'”

More Mexican GP reaction from PlanetF1.com

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Verstappen believes he has an alibi for what went down at the start. While Brundle said the reigning four-time World Champion had no intention of making the corner, Verstappen insisted that his Red Bull started “bottoming out” on the kerb, leaving him with no choice but to go straight on.

“I had a very good start,” he said in the post-race press conference. “Then you just follow the slipstream three-wide, four-wide.

“I mean, just following, of course, what the car next to you is doing. So I had to move left, left, left. And then at one point, of course, you’re on the kerb and then I started bottoming out on the kerb. So that was quite hectic. And then a bit of rallying in between Turns 1 and 2. Yeah, that was quite fun.

“And then, yeah, got back onto the track, found my position again, and then actually, yeah, the first few laps were a bit hectic. But at the same time, also very quickly I could see that the grip was just not there, and I was really struggling actually to just follow the cars ahead of me.”

Verstappen would transform his race by sticking to a one-stop strategy, and masterfully keeping his soft tyres alive in the second stint. Rather than fall into the clutches of an impressive Oliver Bearman in the Haas, Verstappen hunted down Leclerc in second.

If it were not for a late Virtual Safety Car as Sainz retired, Verstappen could well have taken P2 from Leclerc.

Nonetheless, with a P3, Verstappen further reduced his gap to new Drivers’ Championship leader Lando Norris. The deficit is down to 36 points with four grands prix and two sprints to come.

Read next: George Russell left amused after Verstappen, Hamilton spark chaos in untelevised team radio