Max Verstappen could receive a grid penalty for this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, dealing a fresh blow to the Red Bull driver’s F1 2024 championship hopes.

It comes after the reigning World Champion was plagued by engine concerns at the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

Max Verstappen faces grid penalty for Brazilian Grand Prix

VerstappenRunning was heavily restricted in Mexico City on Friday. Red Bull He opted to replace his engine before Saturday’s final practice due to “a leak in the air intake circuit that could not be fully resolved”.

Verstappen avoided a grid penalty at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez by switching to another engine from the available power unit pool.

However, the old engine left Verstappen facing a serious loss of power; FIA speed trap figures revealed the World Champion was 2km/h slower than teammate Sergio Perez before the DRS zone on the main straight in Mexico.

Analysis: Mexican Grand Prix

Mexican GP results: Verstappen has his worst enemy, Perez’s end is near

Max Verstappen’s telemetry data shows how he twice fell into his own trap

It was heard that Verstappen complained about the performance of his engine after being attacked by race winner Carlos Sainz while he was leading in the first laps of the race.

The Dutchman finished a distant sixth, his lowest qualifying result of the season, after suffering two separate 10-second time penalties for incidents with McLaren driver and F1 2024 title rival Lando Norris.

Norris eventually finished second, 10 points clear of Verstappen, reducing the gap between them to 47 points ahead of the final four races of the season.

Verstappen continued to maintain a healthy lead over Norris despite not winning a race since the Spanish Grand Prix on 23 June; This was their longest 10-race streak since the 2020 season.

I’m speaking from Austria ORFRed Bull advisor Helmut Marko has hinted that Verstappen will likely face an engine penalty in Brazil, where his grid drop is thought to be less “serious” due to the overtaking-friendly nature of the Interlagos circuit.

Marko said: “The engine we used there (for the Mexican GP) was no longer designed for racing. And as the engine gets older, its performance decreases.

“There will be a five-place penalty. In Brazil, for example, where you can pass relatively easily, it wouldn’t be that severe.”

“But we saw that we missed 3-8 km/h on the straights.”

News of Verstappen’s possible penalty looks set to be a huge boost to Norris, who put in one of last season’s strongest performances in Brazil, setting up pole position for the sprint and finishing 10 seconds behind Verstappen’s dominant Red Bull RB19. sprint and main races.

It is unclear whether Norris will be required to serve an engine penalty before the end of the F1 2024 season, as the McLaren driver is among a number of drivers at the limit of permitted use of powertrain components.

Verstappen previously received an engine penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix in July, dropping 10 places on the grid after taking pole position.

Despite starting 11th, the Dutch driver managed to move up to fourth at Spa; He was just 8.7 seconds behind Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who won the race, and one place ahead of Norris, who started fourth.

Hamilton famously overcame an engine penalty to win the Brazilian Grand Prix as he battled Verstappen for the title in F1 2021. He went from last to first in the original sprint race format, seeing the outcome of the mini-race that determined the grid order for Sunday’s race. grand prize.

The Mercedes driver was disqualified for a technical violation involving the DRS system on his rear wing after setting pole position in the sprint race at Interlagos.

While Hamilton rose from 20th on the grid to fifth in the sprint race, he dropped five places on the grid to 10th in Sunday’s main race due to an engine change.

Verstappen, who secured his first World Championship in the highly controversial season finale held in Abu Dhabi four weeks later, won a tough fight in Sao Paulo.

Under the rules of the current sprint format, if confirmed, Verstappen’s grid penalty in Brazil would only apply to Sunday’s main race and his sprint race prospects would not be affected.

Read next: Jos Verstappen raises FIA stewards’ “conflict of interest” concerns after Mexico penalty