Priestley disagrees with Verstappen: 'He did move under braking'

Priestley: 'Verstappen should have been penalised for that too'

"It was like seeing a Max Verstappen from years gone by when he first came into the sport when he came under so much criticism for the aggressive nature of his driving, the questionable moves, the moving under braking. They even introduced a rule about not moving under braking because of Max Verstappen and it was Max Verstappen that seemed to breach that rule again today, although the stewards didn't seem to agree necessarily. I find that very strange," Priestley begins with his analysis on YouTube.

He explains: "I can think of definitely one, possibly two moves where Max Verstappen, in my mind and seemingly in the mind of many others, was very clearly at fault." The 47-year-old Briton finds it incomprehensible that the Dutchman was not penalised for moving while braking, something Verstappen himself denied having done.

"I cannot see in any world where the stewards don't say that is not just an offence, but it's hugely dangerous. The 10-second penalty for me, yes, perhaps that was fair. If it had been larger than 10 seconds, I would have argued that that would have also been fair. Anything less than 10 seconds, and I'm saying that's definitely a bit lenient," added the former McLaren employee.

'Action Verstappen looked like retaliation'

After Verstappen's slow pit stop, Norris was clearly faster on his new mediums, but according to Priestley, the Red Bull Racing driver did not want to budge. "It seemed like on the run down to turn four, Max started to veer over and push Lando off the track again. Even once he had a puncture. He knows he's heading for the pit lane. Lando at that stage at least had a little bit more grip and a little bit more performance. The tyre on his car hadn't yet let go" he continued.

"And yet, Max was still desperate to not let him pass. Almost it seemed angry, it would appear, after the incident. That I think is as equally if not more dangerous because that seems petulant. It seemed like it was in retaliation," Priestley continued. "It seemed like an immature Max which is not something we have become used to recently. I have a huge amount of respect for Max Verstappen, the way he drives today generally, certainly the performance he's able to put in and generally the way he handles pressure. Sunday, that just went out the window for a moment."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy