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Breaking: Verstappen has to change engine after all, no grid penalty

1 August 2021 at 10:14
Last update 1 August 2021 at 13:45
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  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen has to change his engine after all. It seemed that he would continue with the engine from Silverstone, but this turns out not to be the case. It doesn't give him a penalty for this afternoon's race.

After a quiet Friday, it seemed that Silverstone's engine was doing just fine. However, it was not at full power. Yesterday, however, during the third free practice and qualifying, it did. The gap with Mercedes remained, and so the engine apparently did not operate properly. The advantage is therefore that Verstappen will not receive a grid penalty for this change.

According to Honda it seems to be an after-effect of the crash at Silverstone, but the exact reason is not yet certain. For that the engine will have to be tested first.

Next change is a grid penalty

The Dutchman will have to drive quite a few races with the same power unit, and that seems to be unrealistic. It seems that the Dutchman will have to reckon with a grid penalty this season. The question is when they will take it.

We have seen Verstappen make use of this in a clever way before as well. During a weekend that is not running or the circuit is not in favor of Red Bull, for example.