"That was probably the right call": Max Verstappen changes his mind on the 5-second penalty given to him early in the race

Max Verstappen reportedly felt that the 5-second penalty handed to him at the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GPvwas the right decision from race stewards.

The penalty was handed to Verstappen after the Dutchman and Charles Leclerc went wheel-to-wheel in the first corner. In defending their positions, both went off track.

As quoted by PlanetF1, Verstappen reportedly said that both he and Charles Leclerc braked late into the corner to defend their position. However, since he was off the racing line, Verstappen had almost no grip. Hence, he kept sliding and unintentionally pushed Leclerc off the track as well.

“Well, the start was good. But then, we both braked quite late to defend the position. I was a bit on the inside, on the dirt, I guess. As soon as you are off-line here, it’s super low grip. And that’s what happened. I braked, and there was no grip,” said Verstappen.

The 26-year-old claimed that he did not mean to push the Ferrari driver off track. The Red Bull star said that he was angry with the 5-second penalty for the incident during the race, but admitted that it was the right call to make.

“I didn’t mean to push Charles off the track, but I couldn’t slow down. I kept sliding on four wheels, wide. So that’s why we had to go wide. At the time, also from adrenaline, I was not happy with the decision. But, looking back at it, that was probably the right call. After that, of course, with those five seconds, it was definitely a bit harder to come back to the front.” Max Verstappen added.

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Max Verstappen on how he fell in love with F1

Max Verstappen recently criticized the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP, reportedly saying that it was a 99% show and 1% sporting event. When asked about it during the post-qualifying press conference, he shared that his lov for the sport came from its emotional aspects and not the "show" parts.

"I can go on for a long time. But I feel like… of course, a kind of show element is important but I like emotion and for me, when I was a little kid, it was about the emotion of the sport, what I fell in love with and not the show of the sport around it because, as a real racer, that shouldn't really matter," said Verstappen.

Verstappen's win at the Las Vegas GP took the Dutchman to 53 career race wins, equalling Sebastian Vettel's win tally in the sport, tying him for third on the all-time list.