Max Verstappen walked out of his post-race interview, clearly still angry about the penalty which cost him a shot at victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman did not appear to take any particular exception to the line of questioning from David Coulthard.
The former Formula 1 driver asked him: “Max, well, you were close but it all went away on that run through the first corner. We have to start there. You were very clear on the radio that you thought the two cars were not going to make the turn – the stewards obviously saw it another way.”
In response, Verstappen was abrupt and brief. “I’m going to keep it quite short,” he said, before thanking the fans for their support and then, on the penalty, adding: “The rest is what it is. I’m looking forward to Miami – see you there.”
Clearly, the Red Bull racer was still seething over the penalty which decided the outcome of the race. He was deemed by the stewards to have been at fault for the first lap incident as he fought for the lead against Oscar Piastri.
The McLaren man got the better launch at the start and had the inside line. Neither driver was willing to give any ground to the other and Verstappen went off track to avoid a collision with Piastri.
He claimed that he had been pushed off and Piastri argued that the Dutchman had left the track to gain an advantage. In the end, the stewards sided with the Aussie and Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty.
He had track position and kept the lead until his first pit stop. But by the time he re-emerged onto the track, he was behind Piastri and would spend the rest of the Grand Prix a few seconds adrift of the McLaren, unable to mount a challenge to wrestle the lead back.
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Naturally, Piastri was much happier than Verstappen had been as he picked up the microphone to react to his third victory of the season already. And he let out a small smirk as Coulthard reminded him that, for the first time in his F1 career, he was now the leader of the drivers’ championship.
Piastri said: “It was a pretty tough race, I’m obviously very happy to have won. The difference was at the start, made my case into turn one and that was enough. it was really tricky to follow out there and I couldn’t really stay with Max towards the end of the first stint – it just chewed the tyres – but the clean air was nice after the pit stop.
“Great race, we did the parts that we needed to right. We still need a bit more I think as Max was a bit too close for my liking, but still a great race and a great weekend.”
Regarding the incident, he added: “Once I got on the inside, I wasn’t coming out of turn one in second place. Obviously, the stewards had to get involved, but I thought I was plenty far enough up and, in that end, that was what won me the race. So I’m very happy with all the work we’ve been doing at the starts.”
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