There was a weird positive tactical implication for Red Bull of the five-place grid penalty taken by Max Verstappen in Qatar. He received the penalty for having not slowed at the end of his final qualifying lap for double waved yellow flags. They were being waved because Pierre Gasly had just trashed his AlphaTauri’s front wing and got a puncture at the end of his lap over the kerb of the penultimate corner.
Valtteri Bottas was completing his lap just a couple of seconds behind Verstappen and he too was penalised for not slowing, though in his case it was a three-place drop because it was only a single yellow flag he drove past.