Seven days after sealing a fourth straight title in Las Vegas, Verstappen stormed to a ninth victory of the F1 2024 season on Sunday in Qatar.
The Red Bull driver’s latest win came after he was hit with a rare one-place grid penalty after qualifying in Lusail, having found to have been driving too slowly on a cooldown lap between his push laps, resulting in a near miss with Mercedes driver George Russell.
Russell was heard describing the incident as “super dangerous” over team radio, while Verstappen argued that he had been slow as he was letting Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso past.
Button was left aghast by the decision to penalise Verstappen, describing the decision as “shocking.”
Appearing on Sky F1‘s coverage of the Qatar GP, he said: “The problem for me is that he’s got Fernando Alonso in front of him doing exactly the same speed.
“It’s not like Max has just gone: ‘You know what? I’m going to put the anchors on and hit the brakes right in the middle of a high-speed corner.’
“He’s got the same distance to the car in front the whole way through Turn 12, 13.
“It’s shocking to me that he got a penalty, it really is. It felt like it should have been the same as everyone else. We had it in sprint qualifying as well.
“I’m really surprised that he got a penalty for that. I just feel that they shouldn’t be giving different penalties for the same thing.
“Why would you give someone a reprimand for driving too slow? The rule’s there: you do not drive slower than the delta, so why are you not getting a penalty immediately?
“Then they wouldn’t be driving slower than the delta and it would have cleared up a lot of sooner.”
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com in the post-race press conference in Qatar, Verstappen revealed that he had “lost all respect” for Russell after the Mercedes man pushed for a penalty to be applied.
And he claimed that it was like “talking to a brick wall” in the stewards’ room as he tried to protest his innocence.
He said: “I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards room with what was all going on.
“Honestly, very disappointing, because I think we’re all here. We respect each other a lot and, of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I’ve raced and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.
“I lost all respect [for Russell].
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe that I got it. But in a way, I was also like: ‘I’m not surprised anymore in the world that I live in.'”
He added: “It wasn’t very enjoyable to see that happen because I think that’s the first time that, in the slow lap, someone has been penalised.
“I just tried to be nice, so maybe I shouldn’t be nice.
“But I was being nice, because we are at the end of the season, everything is more or less decided, especially for me. I didn’t want to screw anyone over to prepare their lap.
“And by doing that – being nice, basically – you get a penalty.
“And that’s what I tried to explain as well, but I just felt like I was talking to a brick wall.
“I think I really spoke about valid reasons for what happened and it was clear cut that around me, there were different scenarios going on as well, with people having colder tyres and stuff, so they have to push anyway, and I didn’t want to then cause a scene into the last corner.
“So, very, very surprising.”
