Red Bull is to present the onboard footage of Max Verstappen’s race start to the stewards in Saudi Arabia, after the Dutch driver was given a “very harsh” time penalty.

Verstappen started the race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit from pole position, but was outdragged by Oscar Piastri into Turn 1. Attempting to stick around the outside, Verstappen had to cut across the escape area after running out of room beside the McLaren.

Christian Horner explains why Max Verstappen didn’t concede the lead

Verstappen, holding the lead, took to team radio to protest about being run out of room, while Piastri also issued his take on proceedings over team radio to say the four-time F1 World Champion had gone in with no intention of making the corner.

Verstappen was given a five-second time penalty for the incident, which he served at his pitstop after leading for the first stint and gently pulling away from Piastri as the stint progressed.

Falling behind Piastri in the stop, Verstappen eased back up closer to Piastri by the chequered flag and finished 2.6 seconds down on the McLaren man.

“I thought it was very harsh,” was Red Bull team boss Christian Horner’s take on the race-defining penalty when he spoke to media, including PlanetF1.com, afterward. Horner was armed with a screenshot of Verstappen’s onboard, showing that his left-front wheel was slightly in front of Piastri’s right-front as the pair turned into Turn 1.

“We didn’t concede the position because we didn’t believe that he’d anything wrong.

“You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner, we believed that Max is clearly ahead.

“The rules of engagement they discussed previously, and it was a very harsh decision.”

With Verstappen being given a penalty for not conceding the place back to Piastri, thus maintaining a lasting advantage while off-track, he could have avoided the penalty had he immediately given the position to Piastri.

“If we had given it up, you’re obviously running in the dirty air as well, we’d have dropped back behind and could have been at risk with George [Russell],” Horner explained.

“So the best thing to do was, at the point we’ve got the penalty, get your head down, keep going.

“I think what was a great shame today was that you can see our pace, versus certainly the McLarens and all other cars in that first stint on the medium, 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.”

Christian Horner all but rules out right of review request

While Horner said the lodging of a right of review was “highly unlikely”, the team boss did say that Red Bull intends on asking the FIA stewards to review the onboard footage of Verstappen’s approach to Turn 1.

“Everything has to be objectively looked at in isolation, and that’s a really marginal call,” he said.

“I think the stewards, obviously… we spoke to them after the race, they think it was a slam dunk. So the problem is, if we’re to protest it, then they’re gonna most likely hold the line.

“We’ll ask them to have a look at the the onboard footage that wasn’t available at the time. But, yeah, I think that’s what it is.

“When you look at that, I can’t see how they got to that conclusion. They’ve both gone in at the same speed. Oscar has run deep into the corner. Max can’t just disappear at this point in time.

“So perhaps these rules need a relook at. I don’t know what’s happened to ‘let them race’ on the first lap. That seems to have been abandoned.”

With Verstappen remaining in the fight for the race win despite the penalty, the Saudi Arabian GP suggested Red Bull has found some solutions for its sporadic performance after showing up in Jeddah with a car described as “significantly different” thanks to updated configurations underneath the car.

Having struggled with controlling tyre temperatures over the first handful of races, particularly in Bahrain, Horner said the pace of the RB21 across the Grand Prix is giving the Milton Keynes-based squad grounds for optimism.

“The hard tyre was very robust today, so there wasn’t really any tyre saving,” he said.

“So I think let’s focus on the positives. We qualified on pole. We finished second.

“We had the pace, which, on Friday, looked like McLaren had got 1.2 seconds on the whole field.

“So we’ll take encouragement out of this race that on both medium and the hard tyres. I’m sure the analysis will show that we were quicker than them.”

Read Next: Explained: Why Verstappen escaped bigger FIA punishment after Piastri incident