F1 officials release statement as Max Verstappen penalty changes Saudi GP result

 The Formula One stewards have revealed the reasoning behind their decision to penalise Max Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman received a five-second time penalty following a first-corner tussle with Oscar Piastri that saw him go off track to keep the lead of the race. Verstappen, starting from pole, was outdone by his McLaren rival off the line, and Piastri drew alongside as they approached turn one.

With Piastri holding the inside line and refusing to yield, Verstappen cut the second corner of the chicane. Both drivers pointed fingers over the radio, but the stewards ultimately sided with Piastri, deeming Verstappen's defensive manoeuvres illegal and handing him the penalty. In the official FIA decision document, the stewards explained the rationale behind the punishment.

According to the stewards: "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.

"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 finished the race less than three seconds behind Piastri, who clinched his third victory of the season. Visibly upset, Verstappen chose not to discuss the penalty in his initial post-race interview with David Coulthard, saying he was "going to keep it quite short" before expressing gratitude to his supporters and promptly exiting.

He continued to avoid the topic in the media pen, telling Sky Sports: "To be honest, I think any words towards that is just a waste of time for everyone. The only thing that is in my interest is now looking forward to going home."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was also frustrated with the outcome, questioning on Sky: "Where was he supposed to go?" Later, in a briefing with print journalists, Horner presented screenshots of onboard footage from the incident, which he believed demonstrated Verstappen's lead at the corner's apex.

And as he referred to the documents in his hand, he emphasised: "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."