Max Verstappen issued penalty warning ahead of Mexican Grand Prix after dismal practice session

Max Verstappen could be handed a grid penalty after his dismal Friday at the Mexico Grand Prix.

After last week’s dramatic race at the Circuit of the Americas, the 2024 Formula 1 season continues this weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.

On Friday, Verstappen only managed a total of 18 laps in two practice sessions as he experienced issues with his engine.

After reporting ‘weird noises in the engine’, the reigning world champion was heard saying on his team radio: “This noise is very disturbing. This can’t be normal.”

Red Bull then wrote on social media: “Car 1 will not run again in FP2 as we investigate a PU issue further.”

As Verstappen has already exceeded his allocation of Internal Combustion Engines for the season, a further change will lead to another grid penalty.

The Dutchman was handed a penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix when he moved on to number five.

Speaking on Friday, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner refused to rule anything out when asked whether Verstappen could face another grid penalty before the season ends.

He said: “I don’t think you’re ever safe, as we’ve just seen in the last session. But hopefully, that’s just a small issue.

“I think it’s something probably more of a question for our engine partner as to how comfortable they feel getting to the end of the year. But you’re always on the limit.”

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Meanwhile, Verstappen himself said: “It was from the engine side and we’re checking, I don’t know exactly what it is. From my side, a pretty much useless day. Four or five laps, not much to read into at the moment.

“I never had a good run, only four or five laps in total, and that’s even with some long runs laps in it. A day to forget.”

When quizzed on a potential penalty, Verstappen replied: “That will be alright.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was upbeat about any potential penalties, the Austrian said: “No, there won’t be any penalties. I am sure that we can solve it.”

Verstappen is currently 57 points ahead of McLaren star Lando Norris in the F1 standings heading into the final stretch of the season.