Max Verstappen, in Jenson Button’s opinion, deserved to be penalized at Suzuka.
Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, claimed that Max Verstappen may have been lucky to escape punishment following the encounter with Lando Norris at the Suzuka circuit.
The Dutchman was prepping for his first run in Q3 as he drove slowly into 130R, while Norris was eager to get started and begin his lap.
Therefore, the McLaren driver tried to overtake the Dutchman, but Verstappen lost the rear end while attempting to heat up his tires.
But as a result of the ensuing sideways movement, Norris was compelled to take evasive action, and the British man ran straight for the grass to avoid making contact.
With his first lap, Verstappen won the provisional pole position. However, he damaged the car on his second run, which was irrelevant because neither Carlos Sainz nor Charles Leclerc could improve significantly.
Norris finished in tenth place, but the outcome was not yet final since both drivers had to go before the stewards to explain what transpired.
Jenson Button, while doing commentary work for Sky Sports this weekend, was questioned about the tense situation while the FIA was doing its investigations.
The former Williams, BAR, Honda, Brawn, and McLaren driver explained: “He’s going slow on the exit of a 200mph corner so that’s the issue,”
He continued by saying there was a “good possibility” that the current champion will face a penalty.
He said: “Lando would have seen the car going slow in front, I’m surprised that he went for it, it’s just one of those things in qualifying. It will definitely be looked at.”
Max Verstappen “has to establish his F1 brilliance,” with a key element missing.
Button commended Norris’ attention to detail and fast thinking, but he maintained that Verstappen had no desire to obstruct the Englishman.
He said: “I would say Lando was going a lot quicker than they normally do to start a lap, they normally crawl around with those tires so I think that was probably the surprise for Max,”
“Max losing control of the rear as well, it was not a nice situation for either of them, great job by Lando moving it out of the way and he also did a pretty good lap time considering.
“With Red Bull, they need to go so slow because they work the tires so hard whereas with other teams they have to push the tire harder on the out lap. It wasn’t malicious, he didn’t do that on purpose.”
Verstappen was ultimately warned by the stewards, but they decided that he could maintain the race’s pole position.
Following his victory in the Japanese GP, Max Verstappen, ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, officially clinched the 2022 title.
