“It’s not Sportsmanship” – Haas

During the qualifying session, Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen were involved in an incident. On a wet Hungaroring, Verstappen was trailing Pierre Gasly when he backed off to create some clear air.

Unfortunately, he failed to spot an approaching Romain Grosjean behind him. Thankfully, a disaster was avoided but it did compromise Grosjean’s lap. The Red Bull driver was subsequently investigated but cleared of any wrongdoing. When the incident occurred, the Frenchman was not amused in the slightest.

According to the stewards, Verstappen was on a quick lap and caught up with Gasly very early in the lap. In light of that, he was force to abort the lap altogether. Meanwhile, Grosjean, who was on a fast lap, caught up with Verstappen in turn.

The Haas driver was six seconds behind at turn 11 and four seconds behind two corners later. On the other hand, Verstappen was close to Gasly going into turn 13.

Under normal circumstances, any team principal would oppose the decision and demand for a penalty. However, Steiner opted not to do that. He admitted that he did not like the decision but his hands were tied. The circumstances were also difficult to call. When a driver is in the spray of another driver they are essentially going in blind.

Steiner also said that it was unsportsmanlike to protest the FIA’s decision. For one thing, he would never stoop so low as to demand a penalty for somebody who did something. It would be better to fight if they were handed a penalty for something that they were innocent of. But he would never accuse saying that ‘oh he did wrong,’. This is because if Max got a penalty it only hurts him. Instead, the better thing to do would be to get better and beat him.