Verstappen could have won in Jeddah, claims Horner as he praises his driver's brilliant pace in Saudi Arabia
On the back of another mesmerizing qualifying performance from Max Verstappen, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was left to rue the time penalty which costed the reigning champion a possible victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen started from the pole position after having delivered an eye-catching performance in Saturday’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.
The Dutchman led until the pit stops, serving that penalty costing him a place to Piastri. From there, he couldn’t get close enough to put Piastri under any significant pressure. However, considering McLaren’s pace advantage across the practice session, it was a brilliant effort from Verstappen to finish just 2.8 seconds behind the Aussie despite his five-second time penalty.
Reflecting on Verstappen's brilliant drive in Jeddah, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner noted: "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. It was our most competitive race to date this season in terms of raw pace, but it wasn’t to be.
"Ultimately, they were good, important points today and we are only 12 points off the lead of the Drivers’ Championship and took a few points out of Lando, so we have everything to play for.
Red Bull's Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda endured a collision with his former team mate Pierre Gasly on the opening lap, with the incident prompting the Safety Car to come out as both hit the wall.
While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but found himself at the back of the field. However, Red Bull mechanics investigated the back end of Tsunoda's RB21, and came to the conclusion that the Japanese driver need to retire from the race due to the damage.
"It was a huge shame for Yuki because he was up there on the grid and likely to score good points for us, he’s missed out on valuable time in the car, but there was really nothing more he could do and around here there is always the risk of an incident. Overall, we feel in a positive place heading to Miami," concluded Horner.
