Red Bull boss Christian Horner ruled out protesting the stewards’ verdict that cost Max Verstappen the win at the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen lined up from pole at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday, but eventual winner Oscar Piastri got a better launch at lights out.
Piastri appeared to nudge ahead of Verstappen into Turn 1, only for the Red Bull driver to roll off the brakes slightly and mount a challenge.
The McLaren driver held onto the corner, and Verstappen had no room but to take to the run-off, whereby he assumed the lead.
The stewards deemed this an offense against the regulations, and handed Verstappen a five-second time penalty that arguably cost him the race, with Piastri taking victory over the Dutchman by 2.6s.
Despite presenting photographic evidence to the media that he feels shows Verstappen held an advantage into Turn 1, Horner explained why Red Bull wouldn’t protest the outcome.
“Obviously, we spoke to the stewards after the race,” Horner said (via Autosport).
“They think it was a slam dunk. So the problem is, if we’re to protest it, then they’re going to most likely hold their line.
“We’ll ask them to have a look at the onboard footage that wasn’t available at the time. We’ll put this in front of them first, but I think it’s highly unlikely.”
Horner argues Verstappen’s case
Whilst Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 it was “a waste of time” to argue his point of view and later expressed in the FIA post-race press conference he feared punishment for speaking up, Horner had no issue with presenting his side of the argument.
“I thought it was very harsh,” he said.
“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.
“If we’d have given it up, the problem is you then obviously run in the dirty air as well and you are then at risk with George [Russell], so the best thing to do was at that point we got the penalty, get your head down, keep going.
“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.”
‘I don’t know what happened to let them race’ – Horner
The stewards wrote in their verdict, “However, given that this was lap one and turn one incident, we considered that to be a mitigating circumstance and imposed a 5 second time penalty instead.”
Horner believes this was evidence that the rule enforcers were caught in two minds over their decision making, and penalising Verstappen went against the notion of letting drivers race on the opening lap.
“When you look at that [points to screenshot], I can’t see how they got to that conclusion,” he said.
“Max can’t just disappear at this point in time, so perhaps these rules need a re-look at.
“I don’t know what happened to let them race on the first lap. That just seemed to have been abandoned.”
READ MORE – Christian Horner blasts stewards for costing Max Verstappen victory in Saudi Arabia
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