Verstappen, George Russell and Fernando Alonso were all summoned to explain their actions in the Mexico City pitlane as the pack massed at the end of Q1.
All three escaped sanctions for pitlane impeding around the rules requirement to drive to a maximum laptime (or minimum speed) when not on push laps, which has been in place since the 2023 Italian Grand Prix.
They were all cleared here in part because the stewards and FIA race direction officials feel it is safer to have pitlane bottle necks rather than a potential crash between cars on different run plans.
Slow pitlane driving also occurred in qualifying for last month’s Singapore GP, where again Verstappen’s actions were assessed and he was also cleared as the stewards there felt the current rules do not adequately cover what is occurring.
This is that in order to respect the new requirement to stay below a maximum laptime delta to avoid traffic problems in qualifying, where major speed differences between cars on hot and slow laps can be dangerous and risk collisions.
The drivers are instead slowing in the pitlane to leave gaps to cars ahead to avoid the still prevalent ‘dirty air’ aerodynamic effect on their car handling.
When asked if he felt the maximum lap time is a good solution or if there is a better alternative by Autosport in the post-qualifying press conference in Mexico, Verstappen replied: “I think it's all imperfect at the moment.
