How did Red Bull react to Verstappen's five-second penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix?

After a five-second penalty for Max Verstappen for his incident with race winner Oscar Piastri at the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko and team boss Christian Horner shared the same onion, suggesting that the decision has been "very harsh".

Max Verstappen started from the pole position after having delivered an eye-catching performance in Sartuday's qualifying session. However, the Dutchman launched off the line well, but so did Oscar Piastri, and the pair went wheel-to-wheel into the first corner before Verstappen cut across the apex.

The reigning champion managed to hold on to the lead, but the stewards judged that he left the track and gained a lasting advantage by taking to the run-off area on the outside of the first corner. The Dutchman received a five-second penalty for his manoeuvre.

Explaining the incident, the stewards noted that Verstappen could have received a ten-second penalty instead of a five-second one, but the fact that the incident happened on the opening lap served as mitigating factor.

Speaking to Sky Germany, Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko was left to rue the start, suggesting that the reigning champion could have won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix without the penalty.

“I think the race was lost at the start. And really, where was Max supposed to go? We watched the Formula 2 races, and the same thing happened to two or three drivers. They were only given warnings.

"So in our view, the five-second penalty was a bit harsh…the inconsistency in stewarding is difficult to understand. Piastri was ahead at the start, but at the very last braking zone, Max was slightly ahead again,” he continued. “But it is what it is.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also offered his opinion, claiming that he considered the five-second time penalty as a very harsh decision from the stewards.

"Firstly, congrats to Oscar on the win. Arguably without that penalty we would have won today, so there are a lot of positives to take, a lot of lessons and we know where we have to improve.

"We believed Max was clearly ahead on the first lap and it was a very harsh decision but at that point it was best to concede, serve the penalty, get your head down and keep going. What was a great shame today was that you can see our pace was very similar to the McLaren and after the first stint on the medium we were in good shape.

"We pulled a gap to Oscar on the first stint and the pace was really there for Max, he was getting the most out of the car, let’s not forget on Friday McLaren had 1.2 seconds on everybody.

Pushed on to comment on his incident with Piastri at the start of the race, Verstappen refused to give his real opinion.

"Start happened, Turn 1 happened, and suddenly it was lap 50. It just all went super-fast. The problem is that I cannot share my opinion about it because I might get penalised also, so it's better not to speak about it."