Formula 1 Race Director Charlie Whiting says accustations of stewards acting in an inconsistent manner with regards to track limits are "without foundation", following Max Verstappen's penalty at the United States Grand Prix.
Verstappen scrapped with Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap at the Circuit of the Americas and made a move for third place into Turn 17, but was handed a post-race time penalty after stewards judged that he exceeded track limits to complete the pass.
Verstappen was unmoved when facing the media on Thursday, insisting the sanction was "not correct" but offered an apology for his choice of words in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
Whiting, though, has moved to dismiss suggestions that race stewards have acted inconsistently with regards to track limits, and says Verstappen's penalty was a straightforward affair.
"All in all, I think the accusations of inconsistency are pretty much without foundation," he insisted.
"We have to take a practical approach to this. The only time that it was absolutely clear that the driver gained an advantage [in Austin], the driver was duly penalised and that is really where we are coming from.
"We can look at a particular lap time, look at that mini sector time, and you can see whether or not the driver gained an advantage.
"Leaving the track is not an offence in itself, but if a driver does so he must rejoin the track safely and without gaining any lasting advantage. Those words are really important in this case.
"There were a number of occasions when drivers left the track during race and practice that were not formally looked at by stewards purely because no lasting advantage was gained.
"The point here really is that the stewards felt he gained an advantage. He shortened the track and clearly he was off track and he passed another driver at the same time.
"So, for them the decision was quite simple technically, but emotionally it was not so easy because the decision had to be made quite quickly."
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