The 2025 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was ultimately decided by events at the first corner.
Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen arrived side by side, with Piastri asserting himself on the inside line, leaving Verstappen with two options: back off or take to the run-off area on the outside.
Verstappen chose the latter and rejoined the track in the lead, incurring a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Although he held on to the lead until making his first and only pitstop, the five-second ‘hold’ in his box cost him track position and, in the final analysis, the race.
The rights and wrongs of the penalty naturally became an incendiary topic in the fan community as well as on the pitwall.
Red Bull’s take, as expressed by ‘driver advisor’ Helmut Marko, was that several similar infractions had gone unpunished in the F2 races this weekend, so the penalty was unjustified.
However, the rules of engagement in F1 are very clear in circumstances such as this: if a driver leaves the track and is deemed to have gained an advantage by doing so, they must hand back any positions gained.
Red Bull and Verstappen failed to do this even when informed that the matter had been escalated to the stewards, making the five-second penalty inevitable.
Although Piastri had the disadvantage of ‘dirty air’ in Verstappen’s wake during the opening stint, the world champion’s penalty shifted the initiative and the McLaren driver led the remainder of the race once his late-stopping team-mate Lando Norris, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, had pitted out of the way.
“It probably would have been better for everyone if they’d swapped positions,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports F1 after the race.
“I definitely thought a penalty was deserved. Oscar was clearly up the inside, he got a better start and you need to use the racetrack.
“Whether it’s a five-second penalty or give the position back, I think you could go either way – but I thought it was definitely appropriate, it was Oscar’s corner, and at some point you gotta just concede.”
