The first-ever visit to Jeddah conjured up a hugely controversial and dramatic grand prix as title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max V𝄹erstappen clashed several times before the Merce🔴des driver claimed a crucial victory to set up a championship showdown in Abu Dhabi. 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that F1 had missed the ex𓆉perience of Masi’s late predecessor Charlie Whiting during the Saudi Arabian 🍸GP following a number of contentious and unusual decisions. 

In a bizarre discussion, Masi offered Red Bull the chance to forfeit position and drop Verstappen from pole to behind Hamilton on the grid at a restart after he had overtaken Hamilton off-track earlie꧂r.  

Horner described the negotiatio🔯n as being like “being down the souk” and “unusual”. The Red Bull boss was also aggrieved at the two time penalties Verstap♎pen received for incidents involving Hamilton. 

However, Brawn stood up for Masi in his usua𒁏l post-race column on the official F1 w♌ebsite. 

“I’d like to compliment the FIA and Race Dir෴ector Michael Masi in handling well what was an extremely difficult race. I know some people feel some of the decisions were controversialꦛ but I don’t,” he wrote. 

“The situation you ꦛhad with Max and Lewis at the restart, when Michael recommended that Max drop behind Esteban [Ocon] and Lewis, was handled well as the alternative was to report him to the stewards and that could have ended up with a time penalty.

“I think Michael dealt with it pragmatically. This type of discussion goes on several times during a race. If a driver gets by someone o🐠r defends unfairly, the Race Director will tell the team to correct the positio💧n.

“Some people seem to think Michael was doing a deal. He wasn’t doing a deal. It was sim💎ple: you accept the decision of the Race Director, with a known outcomeꦬ, or it gets passed to the stewards to handle it.

“It was a tricky race and a tricky weekend. We’ve had a lot of challenges 🐭here, and I thiꦐnk everyone – the FIA, F1 and the teams – has pulled together to make this event work and it’s been a huge success.”