Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has criticised the “very harsh” decision to penalise Max Verstappen – and has evidence he believes proves the penalty was wrong.

Verstappen was handed a five-second time penalty for passing Oscar Piastri off track at Turn 2 on the opening lap of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

That penalty cost Verstappen track position to Piastri, who drove away from Verstappen thereafter to a fairly comfortable victory that Red Bull is convinced it should have had instead.

Team boss Horner arrived at his usual Sunday night media debrief with a print-out (below) of the Verstappen onboard that he believes shows Verstappen was ahead of Piastri and was entitled to some racing room.

“I thought it was very harsh,” Horner said.

“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 believe that Max is clearly ahead.

“The rules of engagement they’ve discussed previously – and it was a very harsh decision.

“If we’d have given it up, the problem is you then run in the dirty air as well. Dropping back behind, you’re then at risk with George [Russell]. The best thing to do at that point was get your head down, keep going.

“What was a great shame today was that you can see our pace, versus certainly the McLarens and all other cars in that first stint on the medium, we were in great shape.

“We had to serve the five-second penalty and thereafter on the same basic stint as Oscar we finished 2.6 seconds behind.

“So, without that five-second penalty today, it would have been a win.

“There’s always going to be a difference of opinion over a very marginal decision like that.”

The photographic evidence shows a Verstappen onboard from a different angle to the one broadcast at the time of the incident.

Horner added that “I can’t see how they [the stewards] got to that conclusion”, as “Max just can’t disappear at this point in time”.

“So perhaps these rules need a re-look at. I don’t know what happened to ‘let them race on the first lap’. That just seems to have been abandoned.”

Red Bull is unlikely to challenge the decision via a right of review process because Horner believes the stewards were certain in their belief that Verstappen was at fault.

“We spoke to the stewards after the race. They think it’s a slam dunk,” Horner said.

“So the problem is, if we were to protest it, then they’re going to most likely hold their line.

“We’ve asked them to have a look at the onboard footage that wasn’t available at the time.”

When asked directly by The Race if Red Bull is considering a right of review, Horner said: “We’ll have a discussion.

“We’ll put this in front of them first. But I think it’s highly unlikely.”

Horner dismissed the idea that it would have been safer for Red Bull to simply swap the positions themselves before Verstappen could be penalised.

“But then you give up the lead. We felt we hadn’t really done anything wrong,” Horner explained.

“First corner, racing incident, two cars, I don’t know where he’s supposed to go. At this point, he can’t just vanish. Oscar’s had a good start, Max has had an average start.

“They’ve ended up – as per their thing – front wheel ahead has to be at least in line with the mirror. It’s very, very, very close.”

Horner is referring to the stewards working off the driving standard guidelines (an unpublished set of racing rules), with the judgement ruling that it was Piastri’s corner and therefore he was entitled to room.