Max Verstappen cut short his post-race interview and refused to discuss the penalty which potentially cost him victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was given a five-second time penalty for overtaking Oscar Piastri off the track on the first lap of the race.
The pair shared the front row of the grid, Verstappen on pole, but Piastri got away more quickly and drew ahead of his rival as they approached the first corner. While Piastri used the full width of the track at the exit, Verstappen went off and rejoined the track ahead of his rival.
“He needs to give that back,” said Piastri immediately afterwards. “I was ahead.”
Verstappen claimed Piastri “forced me off” and had “no intention of making that corner.” The McLaren driver accused his rival of the same: “He was never going to make that corner regardless of whether I was there or not.”
The stewards came down on Piastri’s side, handing Verstappen a five-second time penalty. “Well that is fucking lovely,” he remarked when told by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who urged him: “No comment.”
Verstappen was further displeased to be told his off-track excursion had been counted against him. “I thought they wouldn’t count that,” he said. “They literally said that in the briefing.”
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He was still unhappy when the race came to an end and refused to discuss the grand prix when asked for his comments for the television broadcast by David Coulthard.
“I’m going to keep it quite short,” he said. “I just want to say a big thank you to the fans here in Jeddah. It’s been a great weekend, I love the track and yeah, the rest is what it is. I’m looking forward to Miami, so I’ll see you there.”
Verstappen, who has criticised the FIA for clamping down on drivers swearing, claimed later he is not allowed to give his point of view on the incident. “I think it’s better we don’t talk about it because we are anyway not allowed to express our opinions on that,” he told the official F1 channel.
The stewards pointed out that ordinarily a driver in Verstappen’s position would have been given a 10-second penalty, but his was reduced because the incident occured at the start.
“The stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence and determined that car 81 [Piastri] had its front axle at least alongside the mirror of car one [Verstappen] prior to and at the apex of corner one when trying to overtake car one on the inside,” they explained. “In fact, car 81 was alongside car one at the apex.
“Based on the [Drivers’] Standards Guidelines, it was therefore car 81’s corner and he was entitled to be given room.
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“Car one 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.
“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.”
Pictures: Verstappen passing Piastri off-track on lap one
You say
Was Verstappen’s five-second time penalty for gaining a position off the track correct? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Max Verstappen’s penalty for his first-lap incident with Oscar Piastri was:
- No opinion (0%)
- Far too lenient (13%)
- Slightly too lenient (35%)
- Correct (40%)
- Slightly too harsh (4%)
- Far too harsh (8%)
Total Voters: 52
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