Verstappen escapes penalty, keeps pole after impeding investigation

Two-time world champion Verstappen was summoned to see the stewards for allegedly "uneccessarily impeding" Magnussen during the first part of Friday qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.

The incident occured during Q1 when Magnussen, who was starting a flying lap, came across a slow-moving Verstappen at the exit of Turn 1. 

Footage showed Magnussen having to move across to the right with Verstappen going slowly on the outside. 

Verstappen queried the incident over team radio, asking: "He was on a fast lap?"

Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied: "Yep, roger."

Magnussen went on to have his lap deleted for a track limits violation. 

The Dutchman pipped Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to the fastest time in qualifying to claim his fourth successive pole this season. 

What did the stewards say?

"The Stewards heard from the driver of Car ​1 (Max Verstappen), the driver of Car ​20 (Kevin Magnussen), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.

"The driver of Car 1 stated that he saw a car approaching after he crossed the line at the end of his push lap and moved to the left of the track after the exit of Turn 1.

"The driver of Car 20 stated that he had to move to the right to avoid Car 1 and hence lost time on his fast lap.

"The Stewards determined from the video (and audio) evidence that Car 20 had clipped the kerb in Turn 1 and that this subsequently caused a slight change in acceleration which in turn resulted in a slightly slower time on the next mini sectors.

"The Stewards further determined that Car 20 did not have to take significant evasive action.

"We further note that the fact that the lap time of Car 20 was subsequently deleted (due to exceeding track limits at Turn 10) was irrelevant to this decision. Any incident is always investigated independently of other incidents or penalties."