Despite taking advantage of the rule in qualifying, Max Verstappen furious with FIA’s “extremely dangerous” pit lane rule

Three-time reigning F1 world champion Max Verstappen has criticized the FIA for the latest qualifying rule change, which he reckons will create "extremely dangerous" situations.

Following the summer break, the FIA introduced a delta time, which has to be maintained by all drivers who are on a slow lap in the qualifying session. This was implemented to avoid the traffic in the final corner, as many drivers queued up and blocked those on flying laps.

In response to the rule change, drivers began queueing in the pitlane to create a sufficient gap to the car ahead, creating a blockade in the pitlane - which occurred last weekend in Mexico.

The governing body swiftly introduced new rules for the Brazilian GP, where drivers were not allowed to stop in the pitlane and had to do so on the pit exit. Furthermore, they had to pull to their left, to allow those behind to overtake them.

However, this led to several near misses, with Max Verstappen taking to the grass to overtake several stationary cars. The Red Bull driver was unimpressed by the recent changes and let out his frustrations in a press conference at the Brazillian GP.

“It was absolutely terrible,” Verstappen stated (via Planetf1). “On this track, you have quite a long pit exit and there are some walls."

“But on some other tracks, if we implement this, you’re driving very slowly onto a straight where people are passing with 300+ (km/h). And you’re maybe driving at 15, 20 to make a gap, which is extremely dangerous.”

He continued:

“For me, this doesn’t work at all. It just creates even more trouble. I mean, look at what was happening [in qualifying] – people going on the grass, including myself, to try and pass cars.”

“It’s just a mess, every single qualifying, you have like six to eight cars getting noted for driving too slow with the minimum time. I don’t know what we’re trying to achieve.”

This weekend, three drivers were penalized after the qualifying session for not following the rules.

According to reports, the FIA will continue implementing the rules in the remaining two weekends.

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Max Verstappen reflects on Red Bull's factious 2022 Brazil GP

Max Verstappen openly denied helping Sergio Perez in the 2022 Brazilian GP. He refused to let his teammate overtake him, which could have helped Perez in the fight for second in the driver's standings.

Returning to the same circuit, with Checo still in the fight for second this season, Max Verstappen hopes the situation doesn't repeat.

"Last year it wasn't really well spoken about before we got into the race weekend. Let's just hope we don't get into that situation; it is better for everyone," he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

With Perez 24 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen is confident his teammate doesn't need his help and can secure Red Bull's maiden 1-2 finish in the standings.