Max Verstappen took a little jab at the FIA during the Austrian GP in a moment that didn’t make it on TV.
Max Verstappen took a friendly jab at the FIA on team radio during the Austrian Grand Prix after he questioned how they handled the moments right after his crash in qualifying. Verstappen ended up finishing second in the race at Spielberg, with George Russell winning and Kimi Antonelli coming in third.
He moved up three places from his original fifth spot, despite losing control of his Red Bull at turn nine during Q3 and hitting the outside wall. The stewards waved yellow flags, which caused some confusion. Antonelli stopped his lap when he got to turn nine, thinking a double yellow flag was shown, but Russell, who was behind him, crossed the line to take pole position by more than two tenths.
The FIA initially put out a single yellow flag after Verstappen’s crash and only changed it to a double waved yellow about 25 seconds later, after Antonelli and Russell finished their laps. Antonelli later admitted he made a mistake by thinking the double yellow was out sooner, which would have meant slowing down and being ready to stop.
Russell was checked by the FIA too, but they were satisfied he slowed down enough at turn nine. Verstappen found out about the single yellow flag decision after qualifying and said, “I only heard about that now. That’s quite crazy.”
During the race, Carlos Sainz stopped his car on the start/finish straight with a possible electrical problem. The FIA first showed double yellow flags, then upgraded to a virtual safety car while marshals moved Sainz’s car to the pits. Verstappen was passing Sainz while the double yellows were out, and his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, told him about it.
Verstappen asked, “That means flat out, right? Past the car?” hinting at the earlier qualifying situation with the FIA and Russell. He was hoping for an exciting finish chasing Russell, who was on older hard tires, but Red Bull delayed Verstappen’s pit stop, costing some important time. He finished second, 1.6 seconds behind Russell, with Antonelli just behind him.
At the start of the race, Verstappen quickly made up ground, passing Antonelli and Charles Leclerc to move into third. After their first pit stops, he overtook Lewis Hamilton on his second try, having made an unsuccessful move around turns 5 and 6 on lap 11. After the race, Hamilton congratulated Verstappen on their race battle and his second-place finish. Hamilton ended up fifth as his Ferrari struggled with pace on all three tire types.