Max Verstappen lost his temper after Red Bull told him to let Lando Norris pass him amid the threat of an FIA investigation.
Verstappen was one of three drivers fighting for the lead at turn one on the first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix. And he was the one on the outside and went off track while the two McLarens next to him squabbled for position.
By the time he rejoined, Oscar Piastri had taken the lead while pole-sitter Norris had slipped down to third. But the Briton was soon on the radio to complain about how Verstappen had got ahead of him.
The Red Bull racer also gave his side of the story, claiming he had no choice but to go off track to avoid a collision. But it is illegal to overtake outside the confines of the circuit and the F1 stewards were soon investigating the incident after Verstappen failed to give the position back.
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Aware that a penalty was probably incoming, Red Bull took action. Verstappen was told by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over the radio that he needed to give the place back to avoid sanctions.
He said: “Max, the incident is under investigation, our recommendation is you let this go and we can talk about it later. Let Lando past down to turn one.” Verstappen obliged, but not after retorting: “Why can’t we let them say what they think and then we decide?”
The championship leader also swore loudly, before the FIA confirmed that there would be no further action taken because the place had been given back to Norris. But that did not calm Verstappen down who went on to threaten to drive more aggressively in response.
He fumed: “Okay, so you can just run people off the track then? You can tell the FIA that’s how we’re going to race from now on – just run people off the road.”
Amid all that, Piastri was able to speed off into the distance and create a healthy gap for himself. By lap 14, the Aussie had a near-four second gap over his team-mate, while Norris had also comfortably broken the DRS activation delta to Verstappen who had to be more worried about Lewis Hamilton behind him.
But Norris had other problems – most notably the throttle issue he had reported to the team during the reconnaissance lap before the race. It had been fixed in time for the Briton to begin the Grand Prix but was soon being told by McLaren that his race was with Verstappen behind rather than Piastri ahead – indicating some concern about the car.
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