Max Verstappen is not bothered by his penalty for the Russian GP.
Verstappen was handed a three-place grid penalty for his actions at the Italian GP. There, he collided into title rival Lewis Hamilton and ended up taking him and his own car out of the race.
The FIA stewards ruled Verstappen as the driver who was “predominantly to blame” for the incident, and issued the aforementioned penalty.
As such, Hamilton is the favourite to win the Russian GP and slash the gap to Verstappen in the WDC standings. He also has the chance to take a good lead and swing the momentum in his favour. However, Verstappen is not bothered by his penalty for the Russian GP, and insisted that the season is not going to be defined by this race alone.
“The penalty is of course not ideal, but nothing is lost,” Verstappen said, as quoted by Planet F1.
“That’s how I look at it. As for the Drivers’ Championship, we still have a lot of races ahead of us, and it’s a very tiny margin. We will try and make the most from the weekend and work with the package we have.”
Not guilty
Verstappen also spoke about his crash at the Italian GP. He maintained that it was a racing incident, but he has accepted his punishment as directed by the FIA.
“I think you can reflect all you like, but it’s important to look forward and keep pushing,” Verstappen said.
“I still believe it was a racing incident, but we have been given a three-place grid penalty and we just have to work with it now. The race in Monza definitely wasn’t our day for many reasons, but now I just plan to look forward to Sochi.
“We have been more competitive this year and we have a better package at the moment so it will be interesting to see how competitive we can be there this year.
“The track itself and the layout is completely different to the previous races, so I’m definitely looking forward to going back there and seeing what we can do.”
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