In a heated battle with Lewis Hamilton in Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen ended up second in the race putting the two title fighters level going to the finale.
Max pointed out that he did not find it worth battling Hamilton after receiving a five-second penalty in the race, as he gave his take on the Turn 27 incident that saw him rear-ended by the Mercedes driver.
Verstappen had crashed in qualifying and started the inaugural Jeddah race the at third position, but took the lead after staying out during the first Safety Car and choosing to switch tyres in the resulting red-flag stoppage.
He held on to that lead until Lap 44 where he received a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining advantage at Turn 1 prior to Hamilton’s move.
The RedBull driver pointed out that the penalty effectively prevented him from challenging for the win.
“When they told me that I had the five-second penalty, it was not worth fighting anymore because I would never pull a gap of five seconds.”
“So yes, a lot of action, a lot of things that happened. I think ultimately, we didn’t really have perfect pace in the race, maybe also the medium tyres were not amazing to the end. I think the hard tyres [of Hamilton] had a bit more life in them I think, but as always, it’s easy to say afterwards.”
“At the end, that five-second penalty I don’t think is correct but at the end of the day I don’t want to talk about it that much because they don’t deserve any words coming out of my mouth.”
“I find it interesting that I am the one who gets a penalty when both of us ran out of the white lines.”
“In Brazil it was fine but suddenly I got a penalty for it, you could see both of us didn’t make the corner. But it is fine, I also do not really spend too much time on it. We have to move forward.”
There were numerous flashpoints in the race and both championship protagonists were summoned to the stewards for an incident at Turn 27, which saw Verstappen slow to give the pole position to Hamilton, while Hamilton was seemingly caught unaware and mistakenly rear-ended the Red Bull.
Verstappen after the race explained his side of the story of how things transpired in Saudi Arabia.