Stewards explain why Max Verstappen was given three-place penalty

Max Verstappen was stripped of his pole position in Mexico yesterday after ignoring a yellow flag and failing to slow down following a crash to Valtteri Bottas in Q3. As a result, the 22-year-old will now start fourth on the grid, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on pole.

The Dutchman was behind the Mercedes driver when he crashed at turn 17, Verstappen ignored the yellow flag, which helped improve his initial best qualifying lap.

The stewards ruled after the race that Verstappen “Attempted to set a meaningful lap time and failed to reduce his speed in the relevant marshalling sector," as quoted by the Formula 1 website.

“[Verstappen] admitted that he was aware that car 77 (Valtteri Bottas) crashed and did see the car on the left-hand side of the track, but was not aware of the waved yellow flag. He also admitted not reducing his speed on the yellow sector.

“The previous driver (Vettel) reduced the speed significantly as per the regulations.”