Max Verstappen avoids a penalty after pre-race weekend investigation

Max Verstappen was late to Thursday’s FIA press conference

Max Verstappen’s Austrian Grand Prix weekend got off to a delayed start, the Dutchman running to get to the drivers’ press conference after his flight was delayed.

The reigning World Champion was one of the five drivers picked for the Austrian GP drivers’ press conference along with Charles Leclerc, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda.

Max Verstappen was 15 minutes late to the press conference

But while they were seated on the couch at the start of the presser, there was no sign of Verstappen.

That’s because the Dutchman, who on his private plane, had his flight delayed meaning both he and Nico Hulkenberg, who was hitching a ride, were late to the circuit.

Verstappen was 15 minutes late to the press conference but avoided a penalty as Red Bull had informed the FIA about his transport troubles.

Investigated over a breach of Article 19.1 a) of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, the stewards ruled that “no penalty” should be applied.

“The Stewards received a report from the Media Delegate that the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), was late for the Thursday Press Conference,” read the report.

“The Media Delegate reported that the driver had some transportation issues on the way to the track, but the team informed the FIA in advance.

“The Stewards conclude that the driver and the team took every reasonable measure given the circumstances and therefore impose no penalty despite technically the regulations have been breached.”

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Verstappen goes into this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix chasing his eighth win of this season. He was made it work for number one in Spain, pushed to the line by the McLaren of Lando Norris.

“I think McLaren at the moment, they’re just very solid,” said the reigning World Champion. “They’re good everywhere, every single track, kind of.

“And also, I think you could see in Barcelona, they were very good on their tyres. They could just push more on them compared to, I think, everyone else on the grid without actually degging off that much at the end of stints. Because even the last stint, my last few laps were quite a struggle, where Lando was definitely catching up a lot.

“So these are things that we have to do better. Plus, of course, our known issues with the kerbs and bumps, low speed, basically. And yeah, those are things that we try to understand better also for next year.”

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