The stewards have issued a verdict after Max Verstappen was placed under investigation for throwing a towel onto the track during Friday’s second practice session in Hungary.
The reigning world champion was seen discarding a white rag from his cockpit on the exit of turn three, only for it to land on the grass next to the track, triggering a formal summons from race officials.
Verstappen made a visible effort to throw the towel as far away from the racing line as possible, driving all the way to the right side of the track to dispose of it.
As such, the stewards adopted a lenient view of the incident, and allowed Red Bull’s star driver to escape with a mere warning.
A statement read: ‘The stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 [Verstappen], team representatives and reviewed video and in-car video evidence. Shortly after Car 1 was released from its garage, the driver of Car 1 was observed to have thrown a towel out of the cockpit.
‘The driver explained that, while in the garage, the face towel had slipped from his lap to the side of the seat and the team was unaware that it remained in the cockpit. When the driver realised it was there, he moved to the far right of the track and attempted to throw it as far away from the car and the track as possible.
Max Verstappen escaped with a warning after throwing a towel on track during FP2 in Hungary
Verstappen made a visible effort to throw the towel as far away from the racing line as possible
The stewards recognised that the towel may have interfered with his ability to control the car
‘The stewards determine that the towel had the potential to have become lodged in the footwell and to interfere with the driver’s ability to fully control the car and that, therefore, the car was released in an unsafe condition.
‘The stewards consider this case to be distinguishable from a case where a hard (and therefore potentially dangerous) object is left in the cockpit and to be less severe than such a case. Hence a warning to the team is imposed.’
Following the incident, Verstappen explained he feared that the towel could impact his ability to drive safely and did not seem concerned about a penalty.
The towel made its way into the car after being left there by accident when Verstappen came into the pitlane.
The Dutchman said on Friday: ‘It’s just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in, so it’s still in the car when I went out.
‘So instead of it, of course, maybe potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove off line and I got rid of it in the safest way possible. So I think the stewards understand that.’