Verstappen hit with penalty for pit exit breach

Max Verstappen has been given a time penalty after he was found guilty of a pit exit breach at the Miami International Autodrome on Sunday.

Having made an early pit stop under the Safety Car, Verstappen crossed the white line separating the pit exit and the track when he rejoined the action – something that was promptly noted by the stewards.

Once they had looked into the situation post-race, the stewards confirmed Verstappen’s transgression and handed out the standard five-second time penalty.

Verstappen would have dropped from fifth to sixth in the results, behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but the Monegasque was also given a 20-second penalty after the chequered flag.

“When the incident occurred, there was limited video evidence to make a clear decision on whether an infringement had occurred,” read the stewards’ report.

“We therefore decided to investigate the incident after the race, to see if we could get better video evidence of the incident in the meantime, perhaps from other angles. We were able to do so.

“The new angles did show more views of the pit exit line and the incident in question.

“The driver of Car 3 explained that he was driving out of the pit exit and rejoined the race under full course yellow. The stewards determined that the outside of the front left-hand tyre did cross the outside of the solid white pit exit line in violation of Appendix L, Chapter IV Article 6 c) of the International Sporting Code.

“Given the nature of the infraction, the stewards elected to impose a penalty of five seconds.”

-F1