The FIA Issue Explanation on Max Verstappen Penalty After Controversy Over the Decision

"Car 1 then left the track and gained a lasting advantage that was not given back."

"He stayed in front of Car 81 and sought to build on the advantage."

"Ordinarily, the baseline penalty for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage is 10 seconds."

"However, given that this was lap one and turn one incident, we considered that to be a mitigating circumstance and imposed a 5 second time penalty instead."

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Red Bull could have returned the position to Piastri to avoid the penalty, although the team genuinely believes that it did nothing wrong.

The race was decided by the penalty, as Piastri took the lead after Verstappen served his penalty, and the McLaren was able to maintain the lead comfortably throughout.

Max finished just 2.6 seconds behind Piastri in the end. While Oscar likely had some pace in reserve, Verstappen missed a genuine opportunity for the win following the turn one incident.

Red Bull are seemingly not going to appeal the decison by the FIA.

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“Everything has to be objectively looked at in isolation, and that’s a really marginal call,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said.

“I think the stewards, obviously… we spoke to them after the race, they think it was a slam dunk. So the problem is, if we’re to protest it, then they’re gonna most likely hold the line."

“We’ll ask them to have a look at the the onboard footage that wasn’t available at the time. But, yeah, I think that’s what it is."

“When you look at that, I can’t see how they got to that conclusion. They’ve both gone in at the same speed. Oscar has run deep into the corner. Max can’t just disappear at this point in time."

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