After a sensational lap on Saturday to put his RB21 on pole for the Saudi Arabian GP, Max Verstappen’s race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit didn’t quite go as planned from the first lap onwards.
The four-time world champion lost out on the start to Oscar Piastri, and his efforts to make amends into the first corner saw him leave the track on the outside of turn one. But he kept his foot in and came out in front of the Australian racing ace after turn two.
The FIA Stewards deemed this maneuver as gaining an advantage and slapped the #1 driver with a five-second time penalty. When informed on the radio, Verstappen was visibly frustrated with the decision as he believed he was forced out of the track by the #81 driver, who was not entitled to the corner.
Now, after the Grand Prix, Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko has come out in defense of his driver. The 82-year-old used evidence of the feeder series races held on the track before to explain why the 27-year-old’s penalty was harsh.
“We lost the race at the start. On the one hand, where should Max have gone? We’ve seen Formula 2 races, and the same thing happened with two or three drivers. They got a warning. So, five seconds is a bit harsh,” he told Sky Germany.
Helmut Marko asked by Sky Germany after turn 1: “We lost the race at the start. On the one hand, where should Max have gone? We’ve seen Formula 2 races, and the same thing happened with two or three drivers. They got a warning. So five seconds is a bit harsh.”
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After an early Safety Car, Verstappen held the lead from Piastri, but the five-second penalty meant that once the first rounds of pitstops were concluded, he fell back into the race behind the MCL39 of Piastri. From there onwards, the #81 race wrapped up.
But the race win isn’t the only thing that Verstappen risks losing after his turn 1 fiasco with the 24-year-old. Verstappen’s reaction on the airwaves to his penalty was pretty heated, and the Dutchman even swore. It took his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to intervene and diffuse the situation.
With the FIA’s latest mandate on curbing drivers’ swearing, Verstappen runs the risk of catching the ire of the FIA, which could entail a substantial financial penalty for the four-time world champion.
In any case, notwithstanding the time penalty he received, the #1 driver drove a solid race to secure P2 at the chequered flag. This kept him in the hunt for the title in third, two points behind Lando Norris, and 12 points behind the new championship leader, Piastri.
He rounded his evening off with a nod of acknowledgement from the fans as he received the ‘Driver of the Day’ award, too.
