F1: Verstappen penalized for lost bodywork

Max Verstappen must serve an Italian Grand Prix drive-through penalty as a punishment for his Toro Rosso Formula 1 team releasing his car without its bodywork secure in qualifying.

Toro Rosso carried out an engine change on Verstappen's car going into Q1 and it was only able to get him out for an installation lap at the end of the session. It then dramatically shed its engine cover as he accelerated towards Curva Grande, spreading debris across the track.

The Dutch rookie admitted that the team had been hurrying and had not done up all the bolts on the bodywork.

"The bodywork was only 50 percent [secured] with all the bolts – we thought it would hold on as it is quite strong," Verstappen said. "I think it just got a bit too much vibration out of the pit.

"I just felt a little bit of a vibration before and then once I lost it I slowed down."

The team was reported to the stewards, who ruled that Verstappen must serve a drive-through penalty at the end of lap one as "the car was released on its first run in qualifying in an unsafe condition."

Verstappen has also been given an additional 10-place grid penalty, though this is irrelevant in practice as he is already last on the grid having not set a time in qualifying and received a previous penalty for an earlier engine change. Although the latest engine switch was a return to an old unit, the team was penalised as "the FIA seals have been removed from the ICE [internal combustion engine] of car #33 without FIA supervision." That penalty was already anticipated by Verstappen.

"It's the one I used in Spa, but it is declared as a new engine as we cut the seal," he said.

Originally on Autosport.com