Max Verstappen did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’ so has escaped punishment for breaking F1 rules, stewards have concluded. The reigning champion was summoned following Friday’s Sprint qualifying session at the

It was alleged that he had driven over the minimum delta time. It was found that was six seconds above the required minimum time between the safety car lines.

Despite being reprimanded, it has been revealed that Verstappen’s issue lied within ‘false programming in the car’ which led to his steering wheel displaying his time six seconds out. And as a result, the have confirmed that he has avoided any further punishment.

“[Verstappen] was around six seconds above the required minimum time between Safety Car Lines 1 and 2 for one lap in SQ2, but complied with the requirement in all other laps,” read the verdict.

“Telemetry showed that the driver was driving with a constant speed throughout the lap without any other cars around as if he was managing the delta at approx. six seconds off the relevant number.

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“During the hearing, the team stated that, due to false programming in the car, the delta time displayed in the car had an offset of six seconds and, whilst the driver was managing the delta displayed, he was constantly approx. six seconds above the minimum time.

“The team identified the problem by the end of the first cool-down lap and immediately instructed the driver to manage his speed in a way that he would be minimum six seconds below the delta time displayed in the car, which he did in all following laps. This was confirmed by the telemetry.

“The stewards acknowledge that, whilst there has been a breach of the regulations, Verstappen did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’ based on the information he had in the car and did not impede any other cars or create any dangerous situation and, therefore, determine that a penalty for the driver is not warranted.

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“However, a reprimand to the team is issued as they are responsible for ensuring that correct timing information is displayed in the car.”

Verstappen has already spoken out on his performance in Sprint qualifying having finished fourth. He said: “I think what we did in Q3 was good. The tyres were holding on quite well, but, unfortunately, already from FP1, just struggling with a lot of understeer in the car.

“Around here, with all these low-speed corners, you just lose quite a bit of lap time. I think you can see in the first sector, that we’re quite competitive because that’s where a few high-speed corners are.

“But, as soon as you get to the low speed, we just lack quite a bit of grip. But P4 is alright. I mean, of course, it’s not where I want to be, but you also need to be realistic with the limitations that we have at the moment and it was still quite close.”

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