Max Verstappen literally talked himself out of pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix after being penalised by the stewards.
The Dutchman had produced two wonderful laps to unexpectedly beat Ferrari and be the only driver to go sub-1m15s around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
On his second lap, however, he would go purple in the final sector, meaning fastest of anyone, despite passing Valtteri Bottas’ stricken Mercedes after the Finn had crashed into the barrier.
Initially, the stewards’ let Verstappen off citing how he had not gone faster in the mini-sector where Bottas had gone off, but when speaking to the media, Max confirmed he hadn’t backed off in a clear breach of the regulations.
He would also maybe jokingly suggest that if the race officials were unhappy, he didn’t mind if they deleted his second lap as his first time would still have been good enough for pole.
That caused the FIA to reopen the case, however, and award the Red Bull driver a three-place grid drop, meaning Max will now start Sunday’s race from fourth.
As a result, Charles Leclerc takes his seventh pole of the season with Sebastian Vettel alongside on an all-Ferrari front row.
Meanwhile, Verstappen will have to reflect on a time when perhaps his self-confidence and outspoken nature saw one of the most bizarre circumstances of a driver being penalised in F1 history.