Sebastian Vettel has been handed a post-race ten-second time penalty by the stewards at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after being deemed to have moved under braking whilst defending from Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps of the race.
The stewards deemed that the Scuderia Ferrari driver caused the Red Bull Racing driver to take avoiding action at turn four after evidence from on-board cameras and telemetry showed that Vettel did indeed defend his position by moving in the braking zone, something that has been clamped down on in recent races in a bid to improve driving standards and make racing safer.
The penalty drops Vettel from third down to fifth, behind both of the Red Bull drivers, with Ricciardo now inheriting the podium finish despite finishing on the road in fifth.
Max Verstappen had already been handed a five-second time penalty of his own for leaving the track and gaining an advantage after running across the grass at turn one while defending from Vettel and not relinquishing the position to the German.
Vettel has received two penalty points for the incident, making it a total of six in the current twelve-month cycle, while Verstappen also receives a penalty point, and he has four points on his licence.
