Overview

• Verstappen received a 10-second penalty and three superlicence points for his deliberate late-race collision with George Russell, dropping him from fifth to tenth in Spain.
• The three-point sanction brought his tally to 11, leaving him one point shy of the automatic race-ban threshold and raising the stakes in the upcoming Canada and Austria rounds.
• Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Helmut Marko called the penalty appropriate, while former steward Johnny Herbert and Nico Rosberg argued the move merited disqualification.
• Autosport reporting highlighted inconsistent FIA race-control advice over whether Verstappen should hand back position, prompting calls for clearer real-time guidance.
• Verstappen now trails championship leader Oscar Piastri by 49 points and must avoid further penalties to keep his title defence on track.