Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Brundle on the Hamilton–Verstappen battle: ‘'I think it's very grey'

17:54, 30 Oct

Updated: 18:00, 30 Oct

byOlly Darcy

Martin Brundle believes that the right decisions were made regarding Lewis Hamilton's ten-second penalty and Max Verstappen's absence of a penalty at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

"Overall, Lewis left the door open a bit, and Max went through it under control."

- Martin Brundle

After a start that saw a four-wide battle down into the first corner, Hamilton and Verstappen continued that fight on Lap 6 with the Dutchman diving down the inside of the seven-time world champion at Turn 1, going on to cut the second part of the chicane after going side-by-side.

Verstappen then rejoined ahead of Hamilton, and going down into Turn 4, the Brit looked to retake his third place. However, a lock up saw him go off track, rejoining the circuit without following the escape road.

Race control at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez picked up on this, and they handed Hamilton a ten-second time penalty, while Verstappen was not given anything.

Max Verstappen had to cut across the Turns 1 and 2 chicane in the battle with Lewis Hamilton at the Mexico City Grand Prix - Photo: RacePictures.

“I think they’re two separate incidents down there at Turn 4. For me, Max had done enough to claim the corner, because he has to be alongside Lewis’s mirror at the apex,” Brundle stated in Sky Sports' 'The F1 Show'.

"In fact, he was slightly ahead of his front axle, so he owned the corner. He is then entitled to take a normal racing line. He’s won that corner. In a chicane, they will tend to take it based on the first corner, and therefore, you probably win the chicane.

“Now, did Verstappen dive? Was it overoptimistic? That’s in the regulations, and so this is the grey area, you could also call that motor racing. Of course, you’ve got to dive up the inside of somebody to actually overtake them, haven’t you? So I think it’s very grey.

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"But you can argue, did Lewis then claim Turn 2 by getting alongside. So it’s very difficult, it’s very difficult to write, but they are the guidelines. I’m pretty sure Max will know them at least as well as any other driver, if not better."

Brundle: 'There were no mitigating circumstances'

Hamilton was hugely unimpressed that he was the only one to receive a penalty throughout the 71-lap race after Verstappen and Charles Leclerc also took to the grass during a chaotic start on Lap 1. However, despite the complaints from the 40-year-old to the FIA, Brundle thought the handling of the situation was done correctly.

“Overall, Lewis left the door open a bit, and Max went through it under control, didn’t lock his front axle up, and therefore won the corner and was entitled to take the racing line. So actually, in the end, I wouldn’t have given Max a penalty for that.

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“Down into Turn 4, Lewis, I don’t know why they don’t all just go straight on in Turn 4, to be honest. Follow the little road, back up a bit on the way out, not to have a lasting advantage. Why they bother taking Turns 4 and 5, which are really slow, I don’t know, because that little road looks really handy.

“Lewis didn’t follow the route; he had a big advantage, and he didn’t really go to a lot of trouble to back up and hand it back again. Unless there are mitigating circumstances, that has to be a ten-second, not a five-second penalty.

Hamilton was not the only driver who had complaints about how corner-cutting was handled in Mexico City, with former Mercedes teammate George Russell branding the Grand Prix as a 'lawnmower race' after its manic start.

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