'Oscar Piastri gave Max Verstappen a taste of his own F1 medicine'

In short, the Turn 1 incident involving Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix can be described in the following way. 

Oscar Piastri Max Verstappen'd, Max Verstappen. 

Imagine for a second that the roles were reversed, and Verstappen was on the inside line, grabbed the apex, and Piastri was hung out to dry on the outside. 

Verstappen would have been crying foul over the radio, demanding a penalty for the Australian. In reality, it was a piece of driving straight out of the Verstappen playbook. 

Piastri got the better launch off the line and was in a position to send it up the inside, crucially getting to the apex ahead. Here, realising he had lost out, Verstappen simply released the brake, straightened out the steering and went on his merry way through the run-off. 

It was as clear a cut 'going off-track and gaining an advantage' as you are likely to see, although the stewards mitigated the 10-second time penalty down to a five-second one. 

Red Bull's former rules guru-turned Stake boss Jonathan Wheatley was asked about the incident post-race, four years on from the Jeddah night in 2021 when Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton had similar run-ins at Turn 1. 

On the first restart following Mick Schumacher's crash, Verstappen was well behind at the apex and still tried to hang on, cutting the track as he did so. He was dropped back to third for the second restart, with the flashpoint then coming on lap 36 when he divebombed Hamilton - and took to the run-off. 

Wheatley on the pit wall was instrumental in telling Verstappen to give the place back, which he did, but not after the collision between the title rivals whilst playing DRS chicken into the final corner. His verdict on the 2025 incident was that if he was still at the other end of the pit-lane, Verstappen would have given the place back. 

But there is also a 2024 flashpoint which perfectly encapsulates the situation - it is the United States Grand Prix. 

A tough nut to crack

In Austin, Lando Norris was attempting to pass Verstappen for third place, and made his move around the outside of Turn 12 - the end of the back-straight. 

Verstappen, on the inside, and playing the Piastri role in Jeddah, simply got to the apex first and ahead, and sent the car on the outside (Norris in Austin, Verstappen in Jeddah) off the track, copping a penalty for their troubles.

Under the racing guidelines, which were tightened after the fierce debate prompted by Austin, if you are on the outside, you must clearly be ahead to have earned the right to space from the car on the inside.

Despite what Christian Horner might claim with his photo evidence - a screenshot of Turn 1 showing Verstappen ahead well past the apex - he was never making that corner. 

Piastri had simply done a job on Verstappen and used his own trick against him. 

Verstappen quite clearly has Norris mentally covered in a title fight, with Norris spending more time fighting his inner demons than Verstappen or the unflappable and super-calm Piastri.

The Australian, managed by Mark Webber of course, will be a far tougher nut for Verstappen to crack.