A five-second time penalty given to Max Verstappen changed the course of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and helped Oscar Piastri to take victory over the Dutchman
The Formula 1 stewards have explained the rationale behind their decision to penalise Max Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman was handed a five-second time penalty after a skirmish with Oscar Piastri at the first corner of the race.
Verstappen was on pole but his McLaren rival got the better start and moved alongside heading into turn one. Piastri had the inside line and didn’t give an inch of room more than he needed to, while the Red Bull racer cut the second corner of the chicane.
Both drivers blamed each other over the radio but the stewards sided with Piastri and handed Verstappen the penalty after deeming his defensive actions illegal. In the official FIA decision document, they explained why that punishment had been given.
The stewards wrote: “We determined that car 81 [Piastri] had its front axle at least alongside the mirror of car 1 [Verstappen] prior to and at the apex of corner one when trying to overtake car 1 on the inside. In fact, car 81 was alongside Car 1 at the apex.
“Based on the Driver’s Standards Guidelines, it was therefore car 81’s corner and he was entitled to be given room. Car 1 then left the track and gained a lasting advantage that was not given back. He stayed in front of car 81 and sought to build on the advantage.
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“Ordinarily, the baseline penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage is 10 seconds. However, given that this was lap one and turn one incident, we considered that to be a mitigating circumstance and imposed a five second time penalty instead.”
Verstappen ended up finish the race less than three seconds behind Piastri, who secured his third win of the season. Clearly angry, he refrained from commenting on the penalty in his first interview after getting out of the car, telling David Coulthard that he was “going to keep it quite short” before thanking fans and then walking off.
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He continued that policy in the media pen as he told Sky Sports: “To be honest, I think any words towards that is just a waste of time for everyone.” He also said he had “no interest” in appealing against the decision, adding: “The only thing that is in my interest is now looking forward to going home.”
His team principal Christian Horner was also disappointed with the decision, asking: “Where was he supposed to go?” when speaking to Sky. Later, in his media session with written journalists, he brought with him screenshots of onboard footage from the incident as proof, in his eyes, that Verstappen had been ahead at the apex of that corner.
And he pointed to those pieces of paper as he said: “I thought it was very harsh. We didn’t concede the position because we didn’t believe that he’d done anything wrong. You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner that Max is clearly ahead. The rules of engagement were discussed previously, and it was a very harsh decision.
“We were in good shape. We had to serve the five-second penalty, and thereafter, on the same basic stint as Oscar he finished 2.6 seconds behind, so without that five-second penalty today it would have been a win. But there’s always going to be a difference of opinion over a very marginal decision like that.”
