Championship leader Max Verstappen will not be starting the Qatar Grand Prix from second place, instead he will be lining up in seventh at the Losail International Circuit, after being given a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double-waved yellow flags.
In what is a massive blow to his championship hunt, Verstappen will be starting from seventh place for the race which many of the drivers believe will be difficult to overtake at. The stewards found footage showing Verstappen failing to slow in a double-waved yellow section of the circuit at the end of qualifying, the flag was out for Pierre Gasly’s stricken Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda.
It was obvious Verstappen had ignored the flags, as he improved on his lap-time by two tenths of a second, he isn’t the only driver though who has been awarded a grid-penalty.
Valtteri Bottas was awarded a three-place grid penalty and now starts fifth, after ignoring a single-waved yellow flag. It sets the first-ever Qatar Grand Prix up beautifully, with Verstappen and Bottas starting in the bottom of the top ten.
Will pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton make the most of the opportunity?