Max Verstappen has lost pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, being hit with a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly on a cool lap in Qatar qualifying.

George Russell got close to Verstappen while both drivers were preparing for their final qualifying laps, and coincidentally will be the direct beneficiary of this penalty as he moves up to pole position for the race.

Max Verstappen loses pole position in ‘unusual’ penalty incident at Qatar Grand Prix

Russell was closing up to the back of the Red Bull driver midway through the lap, taking evasive action close to the apex of Turn 11 – which the Mercedes driver described as a “bit of a hairy moment” after the session, and “super dangerous” while in the car.

Both drivers were summoned to the stewards to explain their positions in Qatar, and the reigning World Champion has now lost pole position for the race on Sunday as a result.

Russell will be promoted to start from pole, with Verstappen set to start alongside him on the front row in a direct reversal of the previous result.

The FIA stewards explained their position, and while a one-place penalty is rarely seen in Formula 1, Article 12.4.1.f. of the International Sporting Code allows the governing body to impose a grid penalty of any number of positions if they so choose.

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“Car 1 was on a different preparation strategy to that of Car 63. Car 1 was well outside of the delta and the driver of Car 1 explained he had let Cars 4 and 14 past,” the stewards explained.

“The driver of Car 63 claimed that he had adhered to the delta and did not expect Car 1 to be on the racing line. He stated that if a car was going slow in a high speed corner, it should not be on the racing line.

“The Stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly Car 1 did not comply with the Race Director’s Event Notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.

“It was obvious the driver of Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.

“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual 3 grid position penalty, however in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap.”

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