Peter Windsor saw Lance Stroll do something ‘ridiculous’ to Max Verstappen that ‘ruined’ the end of the Saudi Arabian GP

Max Verstappen started off the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix immediately on the back foot, after being handed a five-second time penalty by the FIA Stewards.

The Dutchman had overtaken Oscar Piastri off track and was judged to have gained an advantage, so he had to serve his penalty during his next pit stop.

It effectively conceded the lead for Verstappen, and although the Red Bull pit wall disagreed with the penalty, they turned their attention to overtaking Piastri later in the race.

Overtaking is not impossible around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, but it can be difficult given that drivers must follow each other through sweeping high-speed corners.

Traffic can also be an issue, which is something Peter Windsor picked up on towards the end of the race when Lance Stroll was being lapped, when discussing it on his YouTube channel.

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Peter Windsor highlights what Lance Stroll did that was ‘ridiculous’ in the Saudi Arabian GP

During the closing stages of the race, Verstappen was on slightly fresher hard tyres, having chosen to pit a few laps later than Piastri.

The tyre offset was big around Jeddah, as shown by Charles Leclerc’s pace at the end after doing 29 laps on his first set of tyres, so Verstappen made use of it to catch Piastri and close the gap to within three seconds.

The only problem came when he was trying to lap backmarkers, with Piastri audibly getting frustrated with Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll running in P16.

“There was an unbelievable drama getting past the slower backmarkers, the guys who were being lapped,” said Windsor.

“I was under the impression that you could hold up a leader for maybe a corner or two, but not for a lap and a half, which is what guys like Bortoleto and Stroll were doing when Oscar and Max were coming through.

“It ruined the backend of the race for me. It took Max two laps to get past Stroll, which was ridiculous.”

Oscar Piastri overtakes Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship

Piastri’s third victory of the season and second in a row in the Middle East means he now takes over the lead of the Drivers’ Championship from teammate Lando Norris.

Norris held the championship lead for a total of 34 days and now drops to second, just 10 points behind, while Verstappen is 12 points off Piastri in third.

Verstappen might have been in the third-best car throughout the start of the season, but he is proving his credentials as a world champion by extracting the most out of the RB21.

McLaren will be hopeful they can bring upgrades to maintain their lead as others converge heading into the European run of races midway through the season.