Max Verstappen “sent a finger to the FIA” in his recent on-track instances with Lando Norris, according to ex-F1 driver Martin Donnelly.
Verstappen and Norris went wheel-to-wheel at the US Grand Prix last month with Verstappen forcing his rival wide on two occasions.
Both incidents went unpunished – however one week later in Mexico, the Dutchman was issued a duo of 10-second time penalties for pushing the McLaren driver off the circuit.
Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, Donnelly highlighted Verstappen’s aggressive style was simply an application of the racing rulebook.
“The McLaren team said [at the US Grand Prix] ‘yes, your nose was in front Lando’,” Donnelly stated.
“But Max knew to pick up the accelerator from the brakes to gain speed and as he said, ‘I’m not breaking any rules – I was in front at the apex’.
“Okay, he couldn’t hang onto the car on the exit, but he actually forced Lando off.
“He knew the rules, he knew what he was doing and he sent a finger to the FIA: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong here. I have played by your rules’.
“So that needed looking into again, because in the next race, he did it twice in Mexico and they clamped down on that.”
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