Red Bull argues against crucial Max Verstappen penalty decision

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has argued against Max Verstappen's time penalty during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 

The reigning world champion received a five-second time penalty after leaving the circuit and gaining an advantage at the first two corners, following an incident with Oscar Piastri. 

Piastri made a better start than Verstappen and was alongside the Dutchman as the duo approached the first corner, with the McLaren driver on the inside. 

As a result, it was deemed as his corner, with Verstappen having cut the chicane after feeling he was forced off.

The penalty cost the 27-year-old the race win, although some argued that Red Bull should have informed Verstappen to hand back the position. 

When a driver gains an unfair advantage off the circuit but returns the position, any investigation is usually dropped.

When asked if Red Bull should have assumed Verstappen would be penalised by keeping the race lead, Horner argued: "No, instead it can be no further action."

Horner was then pushed to answer if handing back the position was the safer option, and answered: "Yeah, but then you give up the lead. We felt we hadn't really done anything wrong.

"First corner, racing incident, two cars going, I don't know where he's [Verstappen] supposed to go. At this point, he can't just vanish. 

"I think that Oscar had a good start, Max had an average start. They've ended up as per their thing [the stewards' report], [Piastri's] front wheel ahead, has to be at least in line with [Verstappen's] mirror. Very, very, very, very close."