Max Verstappen on why Sebastian Vettel’s penalty was wrong: “Lewis made it look like he was trapped”. Max Verstappen on why Sebastian Vettel's penalty was wrong.

Representatives of the FIA and Scuderia Ferrari will convene on Friday afternoon at Paul Ricard for a review of the Canadian GP penalty case against Sebastian Vettel. The German driver was handed a five-second time penalty by the stewards in the closing stages of the race in Montreal for re-joining the track in an unsafely manner and impeding second-place man Lewis Hamilton.

The punishment robbed Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari of their first win of the season and also sparked a wave of outrage among the fans and the motorsport community. The Maranello team submitted earlier this week a request for right of review during which it will need to provide new and significant evidence in order to compel the stewards to consider a reversal of their call.

All four of the Canadian GP stewards – Emanuele Pirro, Gerd Ennser, Mathieu Remmerie and Mike Kaerne – will be present in France for Ferrari’s right of review which will take place at Paul Ricard on Friday at 14h15 local time.

In the meanwhile, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took part in Thursday’s press conference ahead of the French Grand Prix and was asked to comment on the incident which took place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. The Belgian-Dutch racing driver confirmed that he wouldn’t have punished Sebastian Vettel for the incident in Canada either:

“Seb couldn’t get back on track any differently than he did. And Lewis needs to know where Seb is coming out. He played it skillfully and made it look like he was trapped. But if I had been Lewis I would have been on the radio as well saying he blocked me. You know it’s in the rules and there’s a possible penalty”. – Max Verstappen said – “In general if you’re going to award a penalty maybe don’t do it in the race. It ruins the whole excitement of Lewis catching Seb and fighting for the win. When you look back at it, the first mistake that happened was Seb went off the track but then he rejoined, he didn’t do anything. He was not blocking Lewis on purpose. Why they gave him the penalty was wrong. He [Vettel] did everything he could to do it in a safe way.”