Max Verstappen was left incredibly frustrated with the stewards after qualifying at the Mexican Grand Prix, as he was placed under a “bulls**t” investigation.
The three-time World Champion topped every free practice session ahead of qualifying on Saturday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez but was denied pole position and even a front row start.
Ferrari found some remarkable pace from absolutely nowhere in the closing minutes of Q3, which saw Charles Leclerc claim back-to-back pole positions ahead of Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen was forced to settle for third on the grid; however, it initially looked like he’d receive a grid penalty.
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The Red Bull driver was investigated after the session following an incident in Q1, where he came to a complete halt at the end of the pit-lane for several seconds.
When Verstappen did this at the Singapore Grand Prix he received a reprimand, which made many suspect that a grid penalty would be sent his way.
Ultimately, the stewards opted against penalising the Dutchman as they understood why he stopped in the pits.
The stewards agreed that the 26-year-old stopped at the end of the pit-lane to reduce the amount of traffic in the final sector, whilst it also allowed drivers about to start a hot lap to pass.
Prior to being told that he wouldn’t receive a grid penalty, Verstappen blamed the FIA for the incident and insisted that they “create it themselves”.
Verstappen believes drivers have no choice but to go slowly in the pit-lane due to a rule which has been introduced by race director Niels Wittich.
Drivers are forced to lap within a maximum lap-time on their out-lap, resulting in them going extremely slow in the pit-lane to build some space to the car in front of them.
Verstappen isn’t a fan of this rule and believes it creates more problems than they solve, whilst he was adamant that he didn’t do “anything strange or wrong”.
“Bulls**t. They create it themselves with that new rule,” Verstappen told Dutch media including RacingNews365.com.
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“Everyone is trying to create space for themselves. I saw that behind me someone was overtaking five cars in the pits at once, and the person wanted to overtake me too, whereas when I exited I wanted to create my own gap.
“But everyone does this, so I’m surprised that… well, I’m just surprised.
“I think everyone should be held accountable for driving in each other’s way because with this new rule, everyone drives slowly in the pit lane. So I don’t think I did anything strange or wrong.”