{"id":821929,"date":"2026-07-25T00:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821929\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T00:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T00:30:23","slug":"fia-confirms-max-verstappen-decision-after-carlos-sainz-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821929\/","title":{"rendered":"FIA confirms Max Verstappen decision after Carlos Sainz investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FIA has confirmed that Red Bull<\/a> driver Max Verstappen<\/a> will face no further action after an incident with Williams\u2019 Carlos Sainz in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Verstappen was summoned to the stewards on Friday following an incident with Sainz in the early stages of FP1.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen escapes FIA action after Carlos Sainz investigation<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a>\u00a0for news you can trust<\/p>\n

Verstappen encountered a slow-moving Sainz on the approach to Turn 12, forcing the Red Bull driver to abandon a lap.<\/p>\n

He then appeared to retaliate by deliberately slowing on the exit of the corner to the Turn 13 hairpin, obstructing Sainz and the Audi of Gabriel Bortoleto.<\/p>\n

Verstappen found himself under investigation for erratic driving, requiring the four-time world champion to visit the stewards after FP1.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen vs Isack Hadjar: Red Bull head-to-head stats for F1 2026 season<\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying records between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates<\/a><\/p>\n

With Sainz insisting that he was \u2018not in any way affected\u2019 by Verstappen slowing down on the exit of Turn 12, however, the stewards opted against taking further action.<\/p>\n

The stewards\u2019 report read: \u201cThe Stewards heard from the drivers of Car 3 (Max Verstappen) and Car 55 (Carlos Sainz) and the team representatives and reviewed video, telemetry, team radio and in-car video evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the approach to turn 12, Car 3 had to move off the racing line to avoid Car 55 which had slowed unexpectedly on the racing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Driver of Car 3 then slowed significantly at turn 12 and gesticulated to the driver of Car 55 to mark his frustration that he had been impeded by Car 55.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver of Car 55 then overtook Car 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver of Car 55 said that he was not in any way affected by Car 3 slowing at turn 12. No other car was affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Stewards therefore determined to take no further action.\u201d<\/p>\n

As reported by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, Sainz was given a warning for his role in the incident despite drawing attention to an issue with his team radio communications at the time.<\/p>\n

Verstappen remains without a victory in the F1 2026 season entering the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has been limited to just three podium finishes this year, recording a best result of second place at Red Bull\u2019s home race in Austria.<\/p>\n

Verstappen also finished third in Canada and Belgium.<\/p>\n

Although he is officially under contract until the end of the 2028 season, it is widely believed that a clause in his contract will allow him to leave Red Bull if he is lower than second in the drivers\u2019 standings at the summer break.<\/p>\n

Verstappen currently sits seventh, trailing second-placed Lewis Hamilton by 68 points with just 25 available in Hungary, the final race before the August shutdown.<\/p>\n

PlanetF1.com revealed last month that Verstappen is in advanced talks with<\/a> McLaren over a move for 2027.<\/p>\n

However, it is unclear if he will commit to leaving his current team.<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen hold the key as F1 driver market nears crunch point<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FIA has confirmed that Red Bull driver Max Verstappen will face no further action after an incident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,4971,837,818,32451,825,806,805,803,804,44,918,85,819],"class_list":["post-821929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-fia","tag-home-page","tag-hungarian-grand-prix","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-red-bull","tag-sports","tag-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}