SAO PAULO -- Max Verstappen has been demoted from third place to fourth in the final classification of Saturday's Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race after he was found to be in breach of Virtual Safety Car (VSC) rules.
The stewards' decision means the Red Bull driver drops an additional point to title rival Lando Norris in the championship standings, with his advantage reduced to 44 points with four grands prix remaining.
Charles Leclerc benefitted from Verstappen's five-second penalty and was classified third in the final standings.
The VSC rules exists to slow cars down when an incident occurs on track that requires intervention but is not considered serious enough for a full safety car.
All drivers are presented with a minimum time on their steering wheel readout that they must remain above until racing resumes with a green flag.
In the Brazil sprint race, Verstappen was found to be 0.63 seconds below the minimum time when racing resumed and he attempted a pass on Oscar Piastri for second place.
"This indicates a sporting advantage gained under VSC," the stewards said. "The driver [Verstappen] explained that as he was awaiting VSC to end and he got the notification that he was below the minimum time, he attempted to correct the error but failed to do so by the point that the panels turned green.
"This is a breach and the standard penalty is applied for the advantage gained at that time.
"The net effect of this put the driver ahead of where he was at the start of the VSC and not as a result of the car in front falling back."
The five-second penalty dropped Verstappen behind Leclerc in the sprint race classification, meaning he scored five points for finishing fourth instead of six for third.
The championship leader also received a penalty point on his superlicence, taking his total to seven in the last 12 months, with 12 points in 12 months resulting in a race ban.
Norris won the Brazil sprint race, securing a maximum eight points, after McLaren ordered his teammate Oscar Piastri to relinquish the lead with two laps remaining.