Explained: Max Verstappen penalty and why it could have been worse

F1’s stewards applied mitigating circumstances when handing out Max Verstappen’s controversial penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for illegally keeping the lead from Oscar Piastri by taking to the run-off at the first corner after the McLaren driver got a better launch at the start of Sunday’s race.

The Red Bull driver, who claimed pole position with another brilliant qualifying lap, ultimately had to settle for second after he served his penalty during his pit stop, which dropped him behind Piastri.

Verstappen was left annoyed at the penalty and cut-short his post-race interview, before giving similarly terse answers in the TV pen.

But an official explanation from the stewards in their formal verdict revealed why Verstappen was punished - and that his penalty could have been twice as severe.

"The Stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, telemetry and in-car video evidence and 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 1 when trying to overtake Car 1 on the inside,” they explained.

"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 5 second time penalty instead.”

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Verstappen appeared to suggest that the rules had changed since last year.

“To be honest I think any word towards that is just a waste of time,” the four-time world champion told Sky Sports F1.

“We talked about it a lot and last year, this year, different kind of rules. This is not my problem to be honest.

Later in the race, Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson was handed a 10-second penalty for the same offence as Verstappen at the same corner.

“While he completed the overtake before turn one, the speed that he carried into the turn meant that he could not navigate turn one without leaving the track,” the stewards said.

“He therefore could not successfully overtake car seven [Jack Doohan] without leaving the track and thereby gained a lasting advantage which he did not give back.

“The standard penalty of 10 seconds was therefore applied.”