After Collision With Hamilton At Monza, Verstappen Penalized To Retreat 3 Grid Positions At The Russian GP

Max Verstappen collision incident with Lewis Hamilton (Twitter @f1)

JAKARTA - Max Verstappen was awarded a three-place grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix after race supervisors ruled the Red Bull driver was responsible for his crash with rival Lewis Hamilton at Monza on Sunday.

The collision caused the two drivers to crash out of the Italian Grand Prix when Verstappen's Red Bull car landed on Hamilton's Mercedes.

Failing to pick up points, Verstappen still has a five-point lead over Hamilton at the top of the drivers' standings after 14 races out of 22 scheduled for this season.

Today was very unfortunate. The incident could have been avoided if I had been left enough space to make the corner. You need 2 people to make that work and I feel I was squeezed out of it. When racing each other, these things can happen, unfortunately #ItalianGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/9xOmnqAtd8

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 12, 2021

Steward also awarded Verstappen two penalty points, the first time for the Dutchman in 12 months.

Both drivers were summoned before the stewards after the crash incident to review video evidence.

Stewards said they had found the driver of car number 33 (Verstappen) to be the main cause of the collision with car number 44 (Hamilton) at Turn 2.

"On the board 50m before the first Turn, Car 44 was way ahead of Car 33. Car 33 braked late and started moving to the side of Car 44, although in that series Car 33 was unable to push forward and only behind Car 44's front tire", said the steward's statement as quoted by Antara from Reuters.

"Steward observed CCTV footage that the driver of Car 44 was driving away from the line, even though his position caused Car 33 to run over the curb.

Above everything, today we are so grateful for the advances in safety of our sport pic.twitter.com/oBgq5DxM91

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2021

"When Car 44 moved away from the curb to avoid an incident, the stewards decided that his position was reasonable".

That day's collision was the second major incident between Verstappen and Hamilton this season, after the Red Bull driver crashed out at the British Grand Prix in July, which Hamilton won.

Verstappen will serve his sentence in Sochi on September 26.