The smile on Max Verstappen’s face after he secured pole position for the Saudi Arabian GP wore right off when the race began on Sunday. Oscar Piastri from P2 went right at him, and to defend his position, Verstappen had to go off the track in a move that the FIA felt was illegal.
Verstappen got a five-second time penalty. With a superfast dominant car, that wouldn’t have been any problem, but with the MCL39 of Piastri—arguably the fastest car on the grid—behind him, the Dutchman found himself on the back foot. He wasn’t happy, and neither were the Red Bull higher-ups, who openly questioned the decision.
After the race ended and the helmets came off, Verstappen was even spotted arguing with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
However, Piastri fans were content with the time penalty. Because when Charles Leclerc’s girlfriend, Alexandra Saint Mleux, shared a video of the race start, they thanked her for providing clarity—even though it didn’t show much.
Saint Mleux, who watching the race from the grandstands, could show only the moment that cars launched off the line. Still, Piastri’s loyal supporters took to X (formerly Twitter) to laud her.
“Thank you, Alexandra Saint Mleux, for posting the race start on your Instagram story, because you can clearly see Oscar is head of Max at T1 from that angle,” one fan wrote. The problem, however, was that it was not clear at all.
— فراولة (@rosiierix) April 20, 2025
It was presumably just Piastri fans—euphoric from the Melbourne-born driver’s performance—having a laugh and rubbing the defeat in the faces of Verstappen‘s supporters. Some even brought up the old joke about Piastri actually being an ‘adopted Leclerc’ to explain why Saint Mleux posted the video.
On a serious note, the onboard footage and clips of the two drivers being side by side at turn one showed that Piastri was right beside Verstappen’s RB21 and held his line properly to navigate that opening section. To be fair, the Dutchman did not have anywhere else to go, so it makes sense why he had to take evasive action and go off the track.
And given that he would rarely back out of a wheel-to-wheel tussle like that, there was no chance Verstappen was going to slot behind Piastri at turn two or cede the position back to the Aussie to avoid a penalty.
don’t ever let people say adopted family isn’t real family! https://t.co/melyZGtSQn
— miels ⋆*๑՞ (@racevictors) April 21, 2025
So, it was natural that the FIA gave him the five-second penalty and even former F1 TV presenter, Will Buxton, deemed that it was a “slam dunk” penalty for Verstappen’s error. What was perplexing, though, is that the stewards did not give Red Bull a chance to course correct and hand the position back before levying the penalty after the initial safety car period ended.
Nevertheless, it sadly ended hopes of Verstappen winning the Saudi Arabian GP even before he could put up a fight.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown naturally thought that the penalty was deserved. “Oscar was clearly on the inside. Got a better start. And you need to use the race track,” the American said post race.
The four-time champion could only finish P2, with Piastri assuming the lead of the championship standings thanks to his victory. With 99 points under his belt, the Aussie has started rack up wins and take control of this title race, 10 points clear of teammate Lando Norris and 12 ahead of Verstappen.
