Brundle sees Verstappen 'gamble and lose' for the first time in Jeddah

15:00, 22 Apr

byKada Sarkozi

Former F1 driver Martin Brundle believes Max Verstappen's gamble did not pay off into Turn 1 this time.

In his Sky Sports column, the Briton first looked back on the Dutchman's lap that earned him pole position.

“Max Verstappen had delivered yet another barely believable lap to steal pole position, perhaps helped a little by a timely slipstream from his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris smearing his McLaren down the wall and smart thinking by the Red Bull pit wall to fuel him for two quick runs in the remaining few minutes after the resultant red flag,” Brundle begins about qualifying on Saturday.

After the start of the Saudi Arabia GP, the most important battle of the weekend took place into Turn 1, where after a better start, Oscar Piastri went down the inside of the Dutchman.

“You'll not find many people in and around F1 who think Max is anything other than the best driver on the grid right now. But Oscar Piastri at McLaren is learning fast,” Brundle underlined still how inexperienced the Australian is compared to his rivals.

“He's now won 10 per cent of his 51 race starts and leads the world championship. And he'll only get better.”

According to the rule book, Brundle sees there is not much debate about the penalty Verstappen received from the stewards in at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

"Sometimes you can see incidents from different angles and debate the scenario and doubt your first impressions, but accelerating across the run-off area with relatively little steering lock had plainly given Max an unfair advantage and the lead," the Briton writes.

"I and many others had no doubt about that, and nor did the stewards who awarded a five-second penalty."

Brundle: 'Verstappen gambled and lost'

Verstappen is well-known for knowing the rules well when battling on track. However, this time, his approach did not pay off, Brundle also saw.

"Nobody games the regulations as well as Max, but for the first time he gambled and lost out."

Brundle also wonders whether it was the right call not to hand back to the lead to the McLaren driver. "He would eventually lose the race by 2.8 seconds and it's possible that if the team had told him to immediately hand back the position, he may have won. On the other hand, he was out front in clear air which helped protect his tyres, brakes and engine from overheating and gave him strong pace for all the first stint. Maybe it's worth taking a five-second penalty for that benefit…"

Still, the Briton also sees an alternative to having these debates. "If there had been a wall, barrier or gravel trap on the outside of turn one, Max would have yielded and tucked in."

After also seeing a 'livid' Verstappen and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, he then concludes: "I understand they are hardwired to be so ultra-competitive, along with endlessly being convinced that they are right and everybody else is wrong. That's why they dominated so many seasons, but they didn't read this one properly and lost out."

This article was written in collaboration with Nicole Mulder