FIA announce Verstappen penalty verdict after Austrian GP mishap

The FIA have announced their decision on whether or not to give three-time world champion Max Verstappen a penalty ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

This weekend's event in Spielberg comes as part of a Formula 1 triple-header, and just days after the Red Bull star was victorious in Spain last time out.

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However, Verstappen risked his Austrian GP weekend getting off to a terrible start given that he turned up late to the FIA's press conference on Thursday afternoon - a potential breach of the rules.

Verstappen was due to feature alongside a number of his fellow drivers, but was 15 minutes late to the briefing due to a transport issue, which could have landed him in hot water under Article 19.1 a) of the FIA F1 Sporting Regulations.

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FIA announce Max Verstappen penalty decision

Despite confirming that he did breach that clause, the FIA decided that no penalty would be applied to the three-time world champion on this occasion.

Explaining their decision in a document on Friday morning, the FIA wrote: "The stewards received a report from the media delegate that the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), was late for the Thursday press conference,"

"The media delegate reported that the driver had some transportation issues on the way to the track, but the team informed the FIA in advance.

"The stewards conclude that the driver and the team took every reasonable measure given the circumstances and therefore impose no penalty despite technically the regulations have been breached."

Whilst the above was good news for Verstappen, on track things were more challenging for the three-time world champion at the beginning of the Austrian GP weekend.

In FP1, Verstappen's car stopped on track, bringing out the red flag and temporarily halting Friday's practice action.

However, in sprint qualifying later in the day, the Dutchman turned things around with a smooth session, claiming yet another pole position ahead of Saturday's 100km dash.

READ MORE: Ricciardo suffers HUGE Austrian GP frustration in latest setback

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