Statement issued after Formula One star Max Verstappen throws towel from car at Hungarian Grand Prix

7NEWS

3 days ago

Lando Norris completed an impressive practice double over his McLaren teammate and championship rival Oscar Piastri at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday.
Norris trails Piastri by 16 points heading into Sunday's round at the Hungaroring - the final race before the summer break.
But the British driver laid down an early marker in the first running of the weekend when he beat Piastri to top spot by just 0.019 seconds. He then extended his advantage to 0.291 seconds in the day's concluding session.
Norris' world championship bid suffered a setback at last weekend's rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix when Piastri overtook him on the first racing lap and went on to claim a comfortable win.
Piastri is happy to be back in Hungary where he enjoyed his breakthrough F1 victory last year.
The 24-year-old Melburnian has developed into a genuine title contender over the last year and said on Thursday: 'I have a lot of confidence in myself that I can do it.
'The pace in the last few weekends, especially (Belgium), I've been very confident in and very proud of. I'm more than capable of continuing that for the rest of the year.'
However, it was Norris - never previously out-qualified by a teammate in six visits to the Hungaroring - who stole an early advantage with an impressive performance on Friday at a circuit he has declared among his favourites on the calendar.
There was one moment of concern for Norris when he ran wide at the final turn. But he managed to retake control of his McLaren, and survived without ending up in the wall.
Charles Leclerc finished third for Ferrari, four-tenths off the pace, but three places clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
In the first session, Hamilton complained his car didn't 'feel good', and ran off the road at the first corner following a major lock-up. He was then beaten by both Aston Martin drivers in the second running.
Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were fourth and fifth respectively - the latter returning to his cockpit after he missed the opening session with a back injury - while George Russell ended the running in seventh.
Max Verstappen, who ended speculation on Thursday that he could leave Red Bull at the end of the year, finished a distant 14th in practice, more than 1.1 seconds slower than Norris.
Red Bull were then reprimanded for a bizarre incident involving a face towel which Verstappen threw out of his car and on to the track.
The four-times world champion was summoned after the second session at the Hungaroring as stewards reviewed the video evidence.
'Shortly after Car 1 was released from its garage, the driver of Car 1 (Verstappen) was observed to have thrown a towel out of the cockpit,' they said in a statement.
'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 towel landed on the asphalt, however, and remained there to the end of the session.
The stewards accepted that the towel was more dangerous inside the car than out, with the potential to become lodged in the footwell and interfere with Verstappen's ability to control the car fully.
They also ruled that Red Bull had therefore released the car in an unsafe condition, although less serious than leaving a hard object in the cockpit.