F1 stewards issue statement after Max Verstappen penalty decision over towel incident

Max Verstappen has avoided a penalty after the stewards were forced to look into an odd incident at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The reigning Formula 1 champion was called to the stewards in Budapest for allegedly being released in an unsafe condition during FP2.

Verstappen was spotted throwing a Red Bull towel out of his car and onto the track while the session was still underway. It was similar to an incident that occurred earlier this year at the Miami Grand Prix where Lando Norris was found to have tools and an LED torch in his cockpit.

McLaren and Norris were given a reprieve that day after Norris made his way to the pits to remove the items. Verstappen has faced similar consequences, with F1 stewards issuing just a warning to the Dutchman and his team.

A statement read: "The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 [Verstappen], team representative and reviewed video and in-car video evidence. Shortly after Car 1 was released from its garage, the driver of Car 1 was observed to have thrown a towel out of the cockpit.

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"The driver explained that while in the garage, the face towel had slipped from his lap to the side of the seat and the team was unaware that it remained in the cockpit. When the driver realised it was there, he moved to the far right of the track and attempted to throw it as far away from the car and the track as possible.

"The Stewards determine that the towel had the potential to have become lodged in the footwell and to interfere with the driver's ability to fully control the car and that therefore the car was released in an unsafe condition.

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"The stewards consider this case to be distinguishable from a case where a hard (and therefore potentially dangerous) object is left in the cockpit and to be less severe than such a case. Hence a warning to the team is imposed."

Before the statement, Verstappen himself had spoken out and assured that he attempted to remove the offending article as safely as possible. He said: "It's just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in, so it's still in the car when I went out.

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"So instead of it, of course, maybe potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove off line and I got rid of it in the safest way possible. So I think the stewards understand that."

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