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Max Verstappen, in conversation here with FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem in Jeddah, was clearly unhappy after the race - James Sutton /Formula 1 via Getty Images
Max Verstappen refused to give his opinion on the first-lap incident with Oscar Piastri in Saudi Arabia, which ended with the Red Bull driver being handed a five-second penalty, as he said it might “get him in trouble”.
In a line which had strong echoes of Jose Mourinho’s famous “I prefer not to speak” speech after a Chelsea defeat, Verstappen said he would not discuss the first-corner incident in Jeddah as “people can’t handle the truth”.
Pole-sitter Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty for cutting the corner at turn one to stay ahead of Piastri, which allowed the McLaren man to jump in front at the pit stops and win the race.
Four-time world champion Verstappen, who ended up finishing second by less than three seconds, said on the radio that Piastri “forced me off”. But he would not elaborate after the grand prix, cutting his post-race interview with former driver David Coulthard short when the latter attempted to discuss the decisive incident.
Later, in the press conference, Verstappen said it was “better for him” if he did not say anything. “The problem is that I can’t share my opinion of it because I may get penalised, so it is better not to talk about it,” Verstappen said. “It happened very fast. I don’t want to say anything about it because anything I say may get me into trouble.
“It has to do with social media in general and the way the world is. I’d prefer not to talk. Sometimes your words can be twisted or interpreted in a different way.
“You can’t share your opinions because it’s not appreciated as it used to be. People can’t handle the truth. For me, it is better if I don’t have to say too much because it saves me time.”
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Verstappen’s Red Bull team felt the five-second sanction gifted victory to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (right) - Anadolu via Getty Images/Ayman Yaqoob
Verstappen also addressed the FIA’s new ban on swearing, of which he has already fallen foul, being handed the equivalent of a community service order last season for swearing in a press conference. “I know I cannot swear in here and at the same time you cannot be critical,” the Dutch driver said.
Piastri and his McLaren team were adamant that they were in the right. “I definitely thought a penalty was deserved,” McLaren’s chief executive Zak Brown said. “Oscar was clearly up the inside and you need to use the race track, whether it’s a five-second penalty or give the place back. It was Oscar’s corner and, at some point, you’ve got to just concede.”
Indeed, that was the general consensus, with Martin Brundle on Sky Sports wondering whether a five-second penalty to be served at the pit stop was sufficient.
“He gets clean air [for the first stint],” Brundle pointed out. “It was either an illegal overtake or it wasn’t. I don’t think that penalty does the job.”
Red Bull were clearly unhappy. Team principal Christian Horner sympathised with Verstappen over the radio at the finish and later arrived for his media duties with printouts that he believed showed why his driver should not have been penalised.
“I thought it was very harsh,” said Horner, who was armed with a screenshot of Verstappen’s onboard camera, showing that his left-front wheel was slightly in front of Piastri’s right-front as the pair went into turn one.
“We didn’t concede the position because we didn’t believe that he’d done anything wrong. You can quite clearly see at the apex of the corner, we believed that Max is clearly ahead.
“When you look at that, I can’t see how they got to that conclusion. Oscar has run deep into the corner. Max can’t just disappear at that moment in time.
“I don’t know what happened to ‘let them race’. That seems to have been abandoned. Without that five-second penalty today, it would have been a win.”
Piastri’s win moved the Australian into the championship lead for the first time in his career, by 10 points from team-mate Lando Norris, with Verstappen a further two points behind.
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