Max Verstappen has been slapped with a post-race penalty for crossing the pit exit line at the 2026 F1 Miami GP.
A rollercoaster afternoon for Max Verstappen at the 2026 F1 Miami GP ends with a penalty
Starting on the front row, the four-time World Champion was battling with Charles Leclerc out of turn 1, before ending up with wheelspin and spun around. Amazingly, he was still mid-pack after it.
A Safety Car for crashes involving Gasly/Lawson, as well as Hadjar on his own saw Red Bull pit the Dutchman. Unfortunately for car #3, he crossed the white line on pit exit. That resulted in a post-race penalty.
Running in P3 for a considerable amount of time once the other main runners had boxed much later in the race, the 71-time GP winner could not hold off Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and George Russell inside the closing 10 laps. He finished on 51-lap old rubber.
Nonetheless, following a last lap error by the Ferrari driver, the two-time Miami winner nabbed P5 back just before the line as car #16 picked up suspension damage after his brush with the wall out of turn 3.
The 2026 F1 Miami GP post-race 5-second penalty for Max Verstappen means he stays in P5. He was over 9s clear of Lewis Hamilton at the flag.
Stewards verdict
“When the incident occurred there was limited video evidence to make a clear decision on whether an infringement had occurred.
“We therefore decided to investigate the incident after the race, to see if we could qet better video evidence of the incident in the meantime, perhaps from other angles. We were able to do so. The new angles did show more views of the pit exit line and the incident in question.
“The driver of Car 3 explained that he was driving out of the pit exit and rejoined the race under full course yellow. The Stewards determined that the outside of the front left-hand tyre did cross the outside of the solid white pit exit line in violation of Appendix L, Chapter IV Article 6 c) of the International Sporting Code.
“Given the nature of the infraction the Stewards elected to impose a penalty of 5 seconds.”
