Controversy reigned in FP2 as Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll collided on track during the afternoon session with 25 minutes to go. 

Verstappen, who had let Stroll through in the closing stages of the previous lap, tried to overtake the Canadian. However, Stroll didn’t see the Dutchman on his inside and they hit. Stroll ended up stuck in the gravel as Verstappen managed to return to the pits. 

The stewards summoned the pair following the session to discuss the incident and decided to take no further action after talking with both of them. Read how they came to this decision below.  

‘’The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 18 (Lance Stroll), the driver of car 33 (Max Verstappen), team representatives and have reviewed video and audio evidence. Stroll was on a fast lap and was allowed to pass by Verstappen on the lap preceding the incident.  

Given the information from his team and usual practice, Verstappen assumed that Stroll would back off for the next lap and moved to overtake along the main straight.  

However, Stroll was instructed by his team to go for a second flying lap. Stroll assumed that Verstappen would have backed off to gain a gap between them, also in line with usual practice, and so was not looking for the overtaking Verstappen.  

The drivers agreed in the hearing that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding between them and that with hindsight, both could have contributed to avoid the incident. 

The Stewards therefore find that neither driver was wholly or predominantly at fault and take no further action.’’ 

Tempers flare as Stroll and Verstappen collide at Turn 1 💥#PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/9xhTKe43dp

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 23, 2020

Stroll explained his side of the incident following that meeting: “We just had contact into turn one it was unfortunate. I don’t think he was expecting me to be on a second push lap and I wasn’t expecting anyone to be racing me into turn one.” 

“He let me through into the last corner and I expected him to take a gap. I was busy looking at some things on my dash down the main straight. 

“Once I looked up I was just focused on the corner. I didn’t expect anyone to be alongside me and I don’t think he expected me to be on a second push. So an unfortunate end to the day.” 

‘’We already went to the stewards and cleared the air, it’s all good,” said Stroll. 

Renault were also up in front of the stewards as the team mixed up the front left tyres on Daniel Ricciardo’s during the 2021 Pirelli prototype test in the first 30 minutes of FP2. The team escaped with a warning as you can read below.  

‘’The Stewards heard from the [Renault] team representative. It was agreed that the team used the incorrect left front tyre from a set of a different specification which is an offence with no apparent sporting benefit to the team as the set in question was a development set.’’