Red Bull star Max Verstappen took a subtle swipe at the FIA stewards' decision to penalise him after an incident over the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

The incident in question occurred during Friday's FP2 session at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and involved Verstappen's former team-mate, Liam Lawson, who remains under the Red Bull stable at Racing Bulls.

Heading into turn 12 on one lap during the session, Verstappen went down the inside of Lawson, with the two drivers coming out of the corner unnecessarily side by side and even making gentle contact. Verstappen's unhappiness was made clear immediately, putting his hand in the air to question what Lawson was doing. Neither driver yielded heading into turn 13, though, with Verstappen aiming to get ahead around the outside, and Lawson holding firm on the inside line.

Unfortunately, two did not go into one heading into turn 14, with Lawson using all of the track and forcing the four-time world champion to cut the corner slightly and go over the kerb. This resulted in him colliding with Lawson's Racing Bulls car as he returned to the track.

"He just drove into me, bro," Lawson said on his radio. "He literally just drove into me. Every weekend!"

Max Verstappen takes swipe after FIA penalty

After the session, Verstappen dismissed the idea that the incident had happened due to bad luck and used one of his interviews in the media pen to take a dig at Lawson before they were both due in the stewards' room.

"Well, I don't think it's called unlucky. Maybe not very smart behaviour, what he was trying to do there," Verstappen told Sky Sports. "At the end of the day it’s not going to change my weekend, but if I were him, I would be acting a little bit smarter.

"When you're fighting for your seat, it's not very smart behaviour."

Both drivers were eventually found to have contributed to the incident, and both were handed a one-place grid penalty for their actions, though Lawson was later disqualified from qualifying altogether.

Verstappen wasn't happy with the punishment he received, though, suggesting that the stewards were making the rules up to punish him.

“It’s a new one, that penalty!" he said. "We will keep inventing new ones, I guess!"

Verstappen, though, refused to comment any further, adding: “At the same time, everything I’ve said I said already, and also internally everything has been said.

"That’s for us, and I think we’re all done.”

Verstappen would eventually end the weekend on a high note, by winning in Mexico resulting in his third win in four races.