Verstappen stripped of pole at Mexican Grand Prix

Max Verstappen turned in a brilliant lap to snatch a surprising pole position at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Then he opened his mouth.

Three hours later, the Red Bull driver was bumped down to fourth, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were back at the front, and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was in fighting position to clinch his sixth career Formula One championship.

The changes came when Verstappen was penalised for not slowing down after Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas had a hard crash just ahead of him on his final lap of Saturday's qualifying.

Verstappen seemed to be in the clear until he admitted in the post-qualifying press conference he didn't slow under a yellow flag, even though the rules require it.

"I was aware that Valtteri crashed," Verstappen said.

When pressed later whether he should have backed off, Verstappen bristled.

"Do we have to go there? To safety? I think we know what we are doing, otherwise we would not be driving an F1 car." Verstappen said.

"It's ...