Stewards explain: Verstappen wouldn't have needed to return the position to Russell

After the Safety Car restart, Russell and Verstappen battled into Turn 1. As the two also touched there, the Dutchman left the track.

Afterwards, Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase told Verstappen to hand back the position to the Mercedes driver. Right after, the two made contact once again into Turn 5, for which he got himself a time penalty and three penalty points. However, that was not needed, the stewards explained.

In the report shared by the FIA stewards, that Red Bull reflected on an earlier potential breach for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, however, they marked: "we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident."