The♚ first-ever visit to Jeddah conjured up a hugely controversial and dramatic grand prix as title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen clashed several times before the Mercedes 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 experience of Masi’s 𝕴late predecesܫsor Charlie Whiting during the Saudi Arabian GP following a number of contentious and unusual decisio🎃ns. 

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 rest𝓀art after he had overtaken Hamilton off-track earlier.  

Horner described the negotiation as being like “being down the souk” and “unusual”. The Red Bu♔ll boss was also aggrieved at the two time penalties Verstappen received fo🅠r incidents involving Hamilton. 

However, Brawn stood up for Masi in his usual post-race column on the official F1 website.&nbs𓃲p;

“I’d like to compliment the FIA and Race Director Michael Masi in handling well what was an extremely difficult race. I know some peo🃏ple feel some of the decisions were controversial but I don’t,” he wrote. 

“The situation you had🅷 with Max and Lewis at the restart, when Michael recommended that Max dro𝓡p 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 dur🀅ing a race. If a driver gets by someone oꦬr defends unfairly, the Race Director will tell the team to correct the position.

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

“It was a tricky race and a tricky w🐻eekend. We’ve had a lot of challenges he♏re, and I think everyone – the FIA, F1 and the teams – has pulled together to make this event work and it’s been a huge success.”