Ted Kravitz left puzzled by one aspect of Max Verstappen’s grid penalty at the Belgian GP

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It should have been another pole position for Red Bull star Max Verstappen at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s two drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez both entered the race weekend at Spa with pressure on their shoulders.

Perez is set for crunch talks over his Red Bull future and needed to put in an eye-catching performance to avoid being replaced for the rest of the season.

He did just that, securing a spot on the front row in qualifying after narrowly avoiding being eliminated in Q2.

For Verstappen, it was a case of putting the concerns that arose at the Hungarian Grand Prix behind him.

Verstappen wasn’t happy on the team radio at the Hungaroring and contact with Lewis Hamilton cost him more points with Lando Norris and McLaren chasing him and his team down in both championships.

However, the Belgian Grand Prix is going to be far from straightforward for Verstappen due to a grid penalty he picked up for changing components of his engine.

Ted Kravitz was speaking on Ted’s Notebook about the penalty and admitted he was confused by one radio message Verstappen sent him team after setting the fastest time in Q3.

His understanding of why the 26-year-old took the penalty didn’t match up with what he saw from Red Bull.

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Ted Kravitz left questioning Max Verstappen’s grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix

Reflecting on the triple world champion’s car, Kravitz said: “Max said, ‘Thanks to the mechanics for working so late’, now this is an interesting story.

“I still haven’t got to the bottom of what it was because the rumour was that Max was going to use the new engine that they put, the fresh engine and then go to an older engine in the pool because Spa isn’t so tough on engines and it wouldn’t be tough today in the rain because he wants to use the goodness of the fresh engine in Monza and Zandvoort where he really wants to win.

“So, I don’t get as to why Christian Horner has said and it’s quite a strong rumour, it’s well-sourced, so I don’t understand why Red Bull had to break the curfew and stay late changing things and why it’s the original fresh engine in there.

“So, I can only deduce that the pool engine that they put in didn’t work or something went wrong and they had to change back?

“But I haven’t had that confirmed by Red Bull. I think that’s what Max must have meant when he thanked the mechanics for working so late.”

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Max Verstappen one of the favourites to win at Spa despite 11^th-place grid position

For the third season in succession, Verstappen has taken a grid penalty at Spa.

However, in 2022 and 2023, he had little trouble coming through the pack to take victory, although he won’t have the same speed advantage over the grid this year.

Verstappen was so much faster than the rest of the field in qualifying which should give him confidence going into Sunday’s race.

His teammate could do him a huge favour if he’s able to hold up both McLaren drivers as well as overtake Charles Leclerc in the early stages of the race.

Strategy will be key at Spa, especially as tyre degradation is expected to be higher than in previous years at the track.

Verstappen will hope Red Bull can fix the problems they suffered in Hungary when it came to the timing of their pit stops, although overtaking shouldn’t be as difficult as it was last weekend making the undercut less effective.