Max Verstappen’s rivals have been handed a big opportunity at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix after the Red Bull star was handed a reported five-place grid penalty. He and Sergio Perez have won every race so far this season, but Lewis Hamilton and co may have been given their biggest chance yet to get one over on Red Bull.
Dutch outlet De Telegraaf have claimed that after Verstappen changed to his fifth gearbox, he was punished by five spots on the grid for Sunday’s race. The 25-year-old’s penalty does not affect the sprint race, only the feature race, giving him the opportunity to start the sprint out in front should he claim the fastest time in the shootout.
Verstappen taking this penalty ensures that although he will start Sunday in sixth at best, he no longer runs the risk of a broken gearbox – something that occurred during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP earlier this year. Perez is in line for a penalty soon, having also used his full quota of four gearboxes for the year, one more and he will face a similar punishment.
However, Verstappen will feel comfortable starting Spa in midfield having won last year’s race from 14th on the grid. He quickly stormed to victory and will hope that he can do so once again in order to maintain dominance over the rest of the championship.
The decision to swap gearboxes this weekend may be down to Spa being a race where teams are comfortable overtaking, giving Verstappen more of a chance despite starting from further down the grid. Heavy rain is also expected to fall which could add further unpredictability to the race, as the Dutchman is feeling confident ahead of the race.
“I think we have a quick car,” Verstappen said. “Of course, there are a lot of other teams and I think they brought a lot more than us this year, because we couldn’t.
“But we are very happy with how the car is performing. Our Saturday is maybe not ideal, but I think on the Sunday you can see the upgrades we brought. It [Hungary] was a good race to see it working.”
Verstappen is the first driver to exceed the four-gearbox limit this season, though it is unknown whether the reason concerns complaints over gear sync issues he made at the beginning of the season.
In both Bahrain and Jeddah, he complained over the team radio several times about slow downshifts, hinting at a problem with those parts and he took his second gearbox of the year after just one race, swapping at the Saudi Arabian GP in March.
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