Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has been handed a three-place grid penalty ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix for ignoring yellow flags. The Dutchman was deemed to have violated safety protocols after he failed to slow down during a Q3 crash by Valtteri Bottas. Verstappen's penalty has handed the pole position to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes driver Bottas had a crash at turn 17 while Verstappen's Red Bull was running behind him. Yellow flags were raised but Verstappen did not slow down en route to clocking in his pole-clinching flying lap.

According to a report on the Formula One website, race stewards investigated Verstappen after the qualifying session and decided that he "attempted to set a meaningful lap time and failed to reduce his speed in the relevant marshalling sector."

For his part, Verstappen admitted that he was fully aware that Bottas had crashed. He also admitted that he saw the damaged Mercedes on the left side of the track. However, he claims that he wasn't aware that he had passed a yellow flag sector while going at full-speed.

Unfortunately for him, on-board footage from his car clearly showed that yellow flags were visible as he passed the area. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who was running ahead of him, was able to significantly slow down according to yellow flag regulations. As such, it was deemed that Verstappen had no reason to miss the waved flags.

Because of the three-place grid penalty, Verstappen will have to hand over pole position to Leclerc. He will have to start the Mexican Grand Prix in 4th place due to the costly mistake. "It is very disappointing to be handed a grid penalty for the race and Ferrari will be very quick tomorrow so tyre life will be important but we have a really good race car so it should be a close fight," he said.

Vettel will be joining his Ferrari team mate in the front row. Meanwhile, championship leader Lewis Hamilton will start from 3rd place. He will have a chance to seal the world championship title if he manages to finish with 14 points more than his team mate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn starts from 6th on the grid despite crashing out of Q3.

Max Verstappen