Max Verstappen was not pushed off at Turn 1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as even if Oscar Piastri had not been in the equation, he would never have made the corner.

That’s the opinion of former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, who revealed the Red Bull driver was carrying more speed into Turn 1 at the start of the Grand Prix than he did on his pole position lap in a “Hail Mary move” to stay ahead.

‘It’s a kind of typical Max Verstappen approach’

Verstappen clinched pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, beating Piastri to the coveted grid slot by a mere one-hundredth of a second.

However, it was the Australian driver who made the better start as he pulled alongside Verstappen on the run to Turn 1 before edging ahead.

Gaining the apex, Piastri had the corner with his front wheels alongside Verstappen’s mirrors and therefore didn’t have to leave the Red Bull driver room.

Verstappen didn’t let it go and overtook Piastri through the runoff area at Turn 1 to lead the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Piastri: “He needs to give that back.”
Verstappen: “He just pushed me off.”
Piastri: “He was never going to make the corner whether I was there or not.”

The stewards agreed with Piastri and gave Verstappen a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

More analysis of the Saudi Arabian GP

👉 F1 uncovered: The repeated McLaren update tactic used in Saudi Arabia

👉 Have your say: Who will win the F1 2025 Drivers’ title?

It was always a “Hail Mary” move according to former F1 driver Palmer, who revealed telemetry data to show there was no way Verstappen was ever going to make the corner.

He explained in his F1TV analysis: “He [Verstappen] would claim, he did claim that he was forced off by Oscar, but actually you can see the damage is done immediately.

“He looks over to the left hand side, he knows, really, that he’s in trouble. The only thing left for him is to do a Hail Mary move around the outside, and basically hope either Oscar gives him a little bit of space.

“But actually he’s carried so much speed in here, he’s never really going to make the corner anyway.

“So the only other hope now is that Oscar also doesn’t make the corner, and he can claim that it’s some sort of big mix-up between the two, and they should just be able to leave with neither of them making the corner with Max back in front.

“It doesn’t matter where Oscar, he could vanish the McLaren, the McLaren could completely disappear and there is no chance that Max is keeping this car on the racetrack with that angle and that attack that he had on the way in.

“Not in a month of Sundays is he keeping that car on the road with his entry, but off he goes.

“And it’s a kind of typical Max approach this one to say he was forced off, use that outside track and try and fight it out with the stewards.”

The former Renault driver backed that up by revealing Verstappen’s speed during qualifying on his pole position lap heading into Turn 1 was actually slower than his speed in the Grand Prix despite carrying a heavy fuel load and running the medium tyres.

“Max releases the brakes coming into the corner,” he added. “So through the apex of Turn One, he’s carrying now a lot more speed to try and sweep around the outside. And you can see him releasing the brakes where Piastri holds it.

“Max just has two tiny steps of it, but really he’s got off the brakes, and he’s just tried to swing the speed in in a completely ambitious attempt to keep the lead, and he was never going to keep it on the racetrack by doing so either.

“And in fact, as we look at the data, you can see Max is actually even quicker on Turn One lap, one with 100 kilos of fuel, no apex and medium tyres, than he was on his qualifying lap the day before, on soft tyres, where he was about to get pole.

“Coming through the apex of Turn One, he’s actually carrying more speed, which again highlights quite how ambitious this move was and why he was very unlikely to ever be able to keep it on the track.”

It’s not the first time Verstappen has used the runoff area against a rival, Palmer pointing to last year’s Austrian and Mexican Grands Prix as he battled Lando Norris while also recalling the Dutchman’s 2021 title fight against Lewis Hamilton.

“We’ve seen this quite a few times before with Max where he will use the runoff areas, either an attack or defense, and then try and claim to the stewards he was forced off or entitled to the space on the outside afterwards.

“We’ve seen it in Austria last year before the contact with Lando, where he kept the place on the outside. We’ve seen it in Austin at the start of the race, passing Norris later on, trying to defend from Norris as well. And we saw it in Mexico.

“We also saw it a few years ago with a very similar move in Jeddah.

“The restart back in 2021, you’ve got Verstappen on pole, you’ve got Hamilton alongside him, crucial for the championship. And it’s a very similar approach for Max, which is basically, ‘I’m going to leave the first corner first, penalise me if you want to’.

“And this time it’s a lot more egregious. I have to say, Hamilton is much more clearly ahead. Verstappen is absolutely chancing his arm, coming around the outside, arguing that he was forced off.

“But really he’s never entitled to this space, comes through, bounces wide, and Esteban Ocon sneaks underneath the two of them.

“And once again, really there’s no chance that Max was ever going to pull this one off, but it’s a similar sort of scenario and a similar mentality from Verstappen to just try and whatever you do get your car in front and then argue it with the steward.”

Read next: The Mark Webber influence on Oscar Piastri with career first achieved