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Formula 1 title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris's second (and third) contentious clash in a week ended in a big penalty for Verstappen at the Mexican Grand Prix.
After Norris was penalised at Austin, this time it was Verstappen in the stewards' sights as he earned not one but two 10-second time penalties in the space of half a lap during his Mexico City battle with the McLaren.
Were the penalties justified? If so, will they have any impact on how Verstappen drives?
Here are our team's snap thoughts.
VERSTAPPEN NEEDS TO FINALLY LEARN
Gary Anderson
Every day is a school day - or at least it is for some.
Max doesn't seem to have taken anything onboard from his and Norris's exploits at Austin.
Yes gravel, grass or even broken glass set into the kerb would very quickly sort out the track limit problems but hey, these are intelligent drivers and they should be able to sort these situations out themselves.
Basically they need to take on board that you can't push another driver off the track and you can't overtake off the track.
We all want to see hard but fair racing.
As far as the drivers are concerned - and no matter who is to blame or who was right or wrong - they need to think of the team just that little bit more.
There are a huge amount of people responsible for getting one of these cars on track. For the driver to just throw all that effort away is in my opinion completely irresponsible.
Our three podium drivers - Carlos Sainz, Norris and Charles Leclerc - show that keeping it clean gets you the rewards.
THIS TIME VERSTAPPEN WENT TOO FAR
Scott Mitchell-Malm
Verstappen implied after the race he just drives how he drives and sometimes it fits what the stewards like and sometimes it doesn't.
Some will say his aggression comes down to fine judgement, others will say he's always the same level of lairy and sometimes just happens to get away with it.
These incidents definitely had the air of that more than last week, when Verstappen clearly knew what he had to do to get ahead and wasn't overtly problematic - he quite literally only just crossed the line at Austin so wasn't out of control.
Here he was. If the first incident was touch and go, but still ultimately with him in the wrong, the second was completely out of line. As an opponent you can't race a driver like that.
And Max's reaction when I spoke to him suggested he knew the second move had a bit of desperate retaliation about it.
The penalties were spot on. Whether Verstappen softens his driving now, who knows, but it seems unlikely. What he might do is treat Lando like less of a soft touch.
A PROBLEMATIC TREND
Matt Beer
I generally like the way Verstappen races and - rightly or wrongly - am inclined to file more things under the 'just hard racing' category than many of my colleagues might.
But just as it became harder to shrug off some of Michael Schumacher's 'bad habits' after Jerez 1997 because his driving in that moment removed some of the benefit of the doubt that could've been given earlier in his career, so seeing Verstappen being so prone to these lunges when up against a faster car in a title fight makes it harder to be as accepting of some earlier incidents as I might have at the time.
He's not a dirty driver. But just as in that string of late-2021 races, the defaulting to 'throw my car down the inside and whatever happens next, happens' tactics when under pressure in a title fight has become too frequent in this last week alone.
Verstappen will be a worthy 2024 champion. He's driving an incredible season in a car that's been deposed. He absolutely shouldn't make life too easy for Norris or anyone else when they're trying to pass him.
But he went too far in Mexico. And he did it twice in one lap, just a few corners apart. If anything's going to cost him this championship, it won't be McLaren's pace, it will be needless driving like that.
