Verstappen: I don't think Vettel deserved a penalty

The Dutchman is adamant that Vettel did not deserve the five-second penalty, which ultimately cost the German victory, and also believes the sport at the highest level is being over-regulated.

Speaking to reporters on the eve of the French Grand Prix weekend, Verstappen was asked and gave his opinion on the incident that had divided the F1 world, "I don't think he deserved a penalty."

And added, "The first mistake was that Seb went off the track but then, I think when he rejoined, he didn't do anything. He was not purposely blocking Lewis. He did everything he could to do it in a safe way, so I think why they gave him the penalty was wrong."

"I'm not a big fan of all the rules. I would throw the rulebook away in terms of racing. A bit of safe wheel banging and stuff, that's what everybody likes to see... unless you're not a racer."

For the 21-year-old a penalty is only deserved "if you hit each other off the track, but a bit of wheel-banging won't hurt!"

"Of course, it's Vettel's mistake that he goes off the track - but he didn't do anything weird coming back on because you have dirt on your tyres, and you come back on you're sliding," he explained.

"At one point you see him looking in the mirror but then the damage was already done, he recovered the car and there was no space.

"I think in general if you are going to give penalties like that why don't you just put a wall there, because then if he makes a mistake the race is over for him."

The reality is that the penalty dished out by the FIA stewards destroyed what might have been a fascinating final 20 laps, truncating the contest in front of millions of viewers. The incident might have been handled differently, they may have offered Ferrari the option to cede the lead or they could have opted to deal with the incident after the race with both drivers present.

Verstappen suggested as much, "If you are going to award a penalty maybe don't do it during the race because it destroys the whole excitement of Lewis catching Seb and them fighting for the win. When [Vettel] goes off in the lead and you know that Lewis is behind by only one or 1.5 seconds, you stay on the throttle and you're managing, but Lewis saw him going off.

"When he goes through the left-hander he knows that Seb is going to come back on and then, of course, he knows he's going to drift wide," he explained..

Meanwhile, Ferrari have requested that the FIA review the incident with the two parties scheduled to meet at Paul Ricard on Friday.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/06/15/vettel-penalty-who-said-what/