Motor racing-Verstappen handed three place grid drop at Suzuka

SUZUKA, Japan, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Dutch teenager Max Verstappen collected a three place grid drop for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix after leaving his Toro Rosso car in a dangerous position when it broke down in Saturday's qualifying. Stewards said the 17-year-old had stopped on the racing line in an incident that brought out warning flags and affected rivals' hopes of doing a quick lap in the first phase of qualifying. Noting that he had suffered a sudden loss of power at the exit to Turn 11, stewards said Verstappen initially moved to the left of the track towards a safe position but then switched back to the racing line and stopped. "This caused double yellow flags to be shown and endangered oncoming drivers," they said. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)