Hamilton penalized, Verstappen not: 'He knows the differences'

After a hard-fought battle between Max Verstappen and Hamilton, the Ferrari driver ended up cutting Turns 4 and 5.

As a result, the Briton received a 10-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Former IndyCar driver and current F1 TV analyst James Hinchcliffe believes the situation was different from other corner-cutting incidents during the Mexico City Grand Prix.

He said in the F1 Nation podcast: "He (Hamilton, ed.) tried to pull a Max, by just like, ‘I'm just going to stay out here and carry on' and hope it works out."

According to the Canadian, Ferrari should have reacted differently to the situation as well.

He continued: "Maybe some hindsight from the team side there, looking back on it, should they have reacted to that situation differently, backed off a bit, maybe even swap the positions back.

Hamilton eventually finished in P8 after serving his penalty in the pit lane.

The Dutchman cut corners on two occasions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez: once at the start, when he went four-wide with the two Ferrari drivers and Lando Norris, and once into Turn 3 during his battle with Hamilton.

According to Hinchcliffe, Verstappen once again proved how well he knows the rulebook inside and out.

The former F1 argued: "He knows the rules so well. And that’s why I think there was so much frustration from Lewis’ standpoint. He’s like, ‘I watched him do this twice, and he got nothing. I do it once and I get a 10-second penalty.'

"But there are differences in how those two situations played out. And Max has always been so good at knowing those differences and making sure that he comes out on the right side of it. So, credit to him," he concluded.

After finishing third last Sunday, Verstappen is now closer to defending his title than he was a week earlier at the Circuit of the Americas. The Dutchman now trails Norris by 36 points in the standings.

Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the Formula 1 paddock? Then GPblog's F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog's YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.

Make sure to follow us on Spotify as well!