“This Isn’t a Serious Sport”: Furious Fans Riot Against FIA as Max Verstappen Let off Easy After Dangerous Qualifying Stunt

The Japanese GP weekend is underway with the qualifying sessions past us. The track that experienced plenty of rain during the first two practice sessions was completely dry for the qualifying. But despite the dry track, Max Verstappen lost traction on one of his out laps, while trying to heat up his tires, and almost got collected by Lando Norris.

During the qualifying, Norris was approaching Verstappen from behind at a high speed. As soon as Norris got close to Verstappen, the Dutchman lost grip and slid in the direction of Norris.

Norris nearly avoided the collision by swaying away from Verstappen and catching a bit of grass during the maneuver. Luckily, the McLaren of Norris did not make contact with Verstappen’s RB18.

The cold rear tires of Verstappen almost ended the qualifying session for both and could have gotten Max a penalty. However, that wasn’t the case as Verstappen got to keep his pole position for the race even after FIA’s investigation.

The FIA investigated the situation and issued a reprimand to Verstappen because all previous breaches of this nature have resulted in a similar penalty.

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The fans on Twitter, however, did not see eye to eye with the FIA for their decision.

F1 Twitter not happy with the fact that Max Verstappen got away with a reprimand

The slap on the wrist, according to Twitter users, isn’t a just penalty for Verstappen’s infringement.

When F1 journalist Ted Kravitz asked Verstappen and Norris, returning from the steward’s office, “Are we all friends lads? Do you think Pole’s okay?” Verstappen replied, “Always friends.”

Matt Gallagher was quick to let his thoughts known, as he might’ve started the tussle between the Verstappen fans and the ones feeling a reprimand isn’t sufficient.

Either way, both the fans and the users who feel this is a slap on the wrist share their thoughts.

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Fans with different schools of thought shared their reactions on Twitter regarding the reprimand. Despite the drama, Verstappen is keeping his pole. It could’ve been worse, but the Dutchman got away this time.