Verstappen demoted to fourth in Sprint following penalty

Max Verstappen has been demoted to fourth place in the Sprint at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix due to a penalty for a virtual safety car infringement. Nico Hulkenberg stopped on track in the closing laps and the VSC was deployed to clear the Haas, with McLaren having swapped its drivers half a lap earlier to give Lando Norris the lead. Verstappen was close behind Oscar Piastri at the time and had radioed Red Bull to tell it to look out for Piastri dropping too far behind his team-mate to create a buffer. However, with the race resuming at the start of the final lap, Verstappen was found to have been below the minimum delta time allowed and was hit with a five-second time penalty for gaining an advantage. With Charles Leclerc finishing 4.1s behind Verstappen, it drops the Red Bull driver from third to fourth. “Article 56.5 states in part ‘All cars must also be above this minimum time when the FIA light panels change to green’,” the stewards’ decision read. “The driver was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time at VSC End when the FIA light panels changed to green. This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC. “The driver explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green. This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time. “The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back.” Verstappen also gets a penalty point for the infringement, bringing him up to seven points for the 12-month period, five short of an automatic one-race suspension. He already has a grid penalty for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday for taking an extra power unit component, that will drop him five places for tomorrow’s race. With Norris winning the Sprint, he closes Verstappen’s championship lead to 44 points.