McLaren driver clear on Verstappen's move: 'Perfect for the untrained eye'

17:00, 22 Apr

byKada Sarkozi

The most talked battle of the Saudi Arabia GP was clearly the Lap 1 incident between Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Formula E driver Sam Bird also saw Verstappen's intentions, saying the penalty was justified.

McLaren driver and now championship leader Oscar Piastri had a better start in Jeddah, and was alongside Verstappen heading into Turn 1.

The Dutchman then decided to cut the corner, in order to remain in first place, and was awarded a five-second time penalty by the stewards for his maneouvre.

“Max Verstappen, what it looks like he's done is something that he's kind of perfected over the last five or six years, where he releases the brake a little bit more and either runs people off the track or will run off the track himself, saying that somebody didn't leave him enough room. And that's exactly what I believe has happened."

"He's then on the radio to his engineers saying, 'he left me no room, I had nowhere to go'. And do you know what, for the untrained eye and for people that don't understand that particular person and the way that he drives the race car, that might be a legitimate thing,” the driver for McLaren in Formula E said during the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast.

'Then Verstappen should have given up the position'

“But we know Max Verstappen, we know he could have made the corner if he really wanted to, but he would have had to have given up the position. Fact is, he didn't want to. He wanted to lead out of Turn 1 and 2, and he was going to do anything within his power to do so," Bird continued about the incident.

After the Red Bull driver served his penalty in the pit lane, he returned to track behind Piastri's McLaren, and finished in second place.

Piastri now leads the drivers' standings with 99 points, having collected 10 points more than his teammate, Lando Norris, and 12 more than Verstappen.

This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom