Max Verstappen reveals Red Bull 'surprise' after unwanted punishment

Max Verstappen has revealed that he was "positively surprised" by the performance of the RB21 after receiving an unwanted punishment during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 

The reigning world champion lost a probable win at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after being handed a five-second time penalty, for leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage on the opening lap. 

Verstappen battled eventual race winner Oscar Piastri into the first corner, before skipping the opening two corners and remaining in the lead. 

Despite being penalised and finishing second, the Dutchman was able to match McLaren's pace in qualifying and the race. 

It was a stunning improvement after free practice, where Red Bull found themselves several tenths adrift of the Woking-based team.

Verstappen was very pleased by the progress made by Red Bull although has recognised the lack of tyre degradation playing a role.

"Yeah, I was very positively surprised, to be honest, because on Friday, it was very, very tough," said Verstappen. 

"And it didn't matter what I was doing in terms of driving, management, the tyres would just fall off. The car was a lot nicer [in the race]. Still limitations, but it was much more promising. 

"And actually, at one point when I started to pull away again, I was quite surprised, positively surprised. 

"We have to stay a little bit calm because this track doesn't have a lot of deg, and we know that when we go to tracks where there's higher deg, we just struggle more. 

"We still need to work on that. But the changes that we made already [on Saturday] also worked. So I'm very pleased with that."