Max Verstappen handed new penalty by FIA one day before Brazilian GP as F1 title race takes shock twist

A decision has been made following Max Verstappen's Virtual Safety Car (VSC) infringement at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was summoned by the stewards after an incident in Sao Paulo.

He started the day in fourth place but overtook Charles Leclerc before setting his sights on overtaking Oscar Piastri.

Although he tried to overtake Piastri, he came agonisingly close on the final lap.

Under VSC, drivers are required to drive to a so-called 'delta time' to prevent competitors from gaining an unfair advantage while the race is neutralised.

Max Verstappen during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Image: Getty

The FIA subsequently launched an investigation into whether Verstappen’s action broke the VSC rules.

The verdict has been delivered, with the current F1 champion being hit with a five-second time penalty, dropping from third to fourth in the sprint.

On X, F1's official account wrote: "Max Verstappen receives a five-second time penalty for infringing Virtual Safety Car rules during #F1Sprint."

After the initial incident, Verstappen said: “It was quite a tricky race, but I think the pace was very good because we could always follow in the DRS," he explained.

"I’m quite pleased with that, it took a little bit too long with Charles but when everyone is in a DRS train it’s very hard to attack so I had to wait for some mistakes, luckily they came and I could use that to my advantage.

“It was promising, it was good, this is race pace, tomorrow it might rain as well so there’s a lot of unknowns but today was good.”

Red Bull chief Christian Horner added: "He [Verstappen] was just conscious that there was no gap, Oscar wasn't dropping back from Lando.

"I think the most encouraging thing was the race pace was good, that was encouraging. There's some things we're starting to understand."