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Max Verstappen's pair of penalties in the Mexican Grand Prix reflected the fact he clearly breached Formula 1's racing rules in his fight with Lando Norris, having just been on the right side of them in the United States.
Verstappen was hit with two 10-second penalties for separate incidents with Norris just a few corners apart early on in the Mexico City race.
This came a week after he escaped sanction for two controversial moments against the McLaren driver in the US - passing him with a dive into the first corner at the start, then running off track and forcing Norris wide defending the position later in the race.
Verstappen's transgressions in Mexico were more overt than at Austin, where he had taken advantage of the racing guidelines used as the main reference for the stewards to judge incidents in battle.
Last week, Verstappen satisfied the letter of the law. He kept his own car on track at the start, where he also probably benefitted from the added leniency afforded by the stewards on the opening lap, and later in the race he crucially got back ahead at the apex when Norris was trying to complete an overtake on the outside.
The way the stewards judged that move meant Verstappen had earned the right to crowd Norris at the exit, even though Verstappen left the track slightly himself - because the guidelines no longer reference the car on the inside having to remain on track.
That seems likely to change as part of a plan to revise the guidelines before the end of this season in the wake of what happened at Austin, as other drivers believe it is a loophole that should not exist and the matter was discussed extensively in Mexico on Friday.
However, with the guidelines in their current form, what Verstappen did in the US was technically fine. In Mexico, though, he clearly crossed the line on two occasions.
The first 10-second penalty was awarded for forcing Norris off the track. Like at Austin, Norris tried to pass Verstappen around the outside - only this time he managed to get a better overlap into the corner and to the exit. He was alongside Verstappen at the apex, not behind, and held that position until Verstappen forced him off.
Norris rejoined the track ahead of the Red Bull (and leader Carlos Sainz too, who he immediately let back by having inadvertently passed the Ferrari).
A couple of corners later, Verstappen launched an unrealistic move in retaliation into the medium-speed left-hander at the start of the sweeps. He passed Norris on the inside but ran wide well into the run-off area and took Norris with him.
This resulted in another 10-second penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage, because as he was overtaking on the inside on this occasion, Verstappen was required to remain on track - whereas in Austin this didn't apply to Verstappen as Norris was deemed to be overtaking on the outside.
