Verstappen summoned by stewards after Mexico qualifying

Max Verstappen has been summoned by the Formula 1 race stewards following qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix after appearing to set his pole position lap under a yellow flag.

Verstappen beat Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to pole in the final stages of Q3 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but improved on his final lap despite passing the crash-site for Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes car, which was under a yellow flag.

While the FIA initially claimed its data showed that Verstappen had lifted through the yellow flag section, the Red Bull driver denied that he had when speaking in the post-qualifying press conference.

Asked if he lifted, Verstappen said: "Didn’t really look like it, did it? No."

The FIA issued a bulletin at 15:49 local time in Mexico confirming Verstappen had been summoned to see the stewards for an "alleged breach of Appendix H, Article 2.4.5.1 b of the FIA International Sporting Code, failure to slow for yellow flags in turn 17 at 14:00."

Verstappen will see the stewards at 16:10 local time in Mexico.

Verstappen had said in the initial press conference that he was not bothered about having his pole time deleted, given his second-quickest lap in qualifying would have still been good enough for pole.

"I think we know what we are doing. Otherwise we wouldn’t be driving an F1 car,” Verstappen said.

“It’s qualifying, you go for it, but like if they want to delete the lap, then delete the lap.”

Were Verstappen to be stripped of pole in Mexico, it would promote Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Vettel onto the front row of the grid.