Max Verstappen has called out the "idiot steward" that deciding to penalise him for leaving the track and gaining an advaౠntage when passing Kimi Raikkonen on the final lap of the United States Grand Prix, denying the Red Bull Formula 1ജ driver third place at the checkered flag.

Verstappen barged his way past Ferrari's Ki🎀mi Raikkonen on the final lap of the race through the final sector, appearing to ride the kerb when completing the move after a stunni꧙ng fight up from 16th on the grid.

The ste꧙wards, led by Mika Salo this weekend, quickly acted by investigating Verstappen and handing him a five-second penalty for putting all four wheels off the circuit when passing Raikkonen, leavin🧜g the track in the process.

Verstappen was led away from the cool-down r🅘oom before the podium after being informed of the decision, but made no secret of his annoyance a♛fter the race.

"I'm fe♒eling good personally. Of course a big shame that you miss out on the podium afterwards," Verstappen s༺aid.

"They take you away again. It's just one idiot steward up there whoꦡ makes the decisions against me. Also in Mexico [last yearꦺ]. Now I get a five-second penalty and a penalty point, for what?

"At the end of the day, everybody's running wide everywhere, therꦆe are no track limits, and then the crowd is loving it and yඣou do something like that in front of world TV. You pick someone out from the podium again and tell them to go away.

"At the end of the day, I still had a g💜reat race. I'm happy with fourth. Just the way they did it is unbelievabl🍷e."

Verstappen was also angry that he cannot appeal against the stewards' decision, with 𝔉the investigation and penal🍷ty being dished out within minutes of the race ending.

"You can't protest, 🐓it's in the rules, they know how to make the🌃 rules," Verstappen said.

"At the moment it's in their favour. T꧑hey decide and you can't do anything against them which is of course really w𒆙eird. But what can you do? It's not good for the crowd.

"I really hope next year nobody is coming, because lไike this, the sport doesn't make sense. Everyone is loving it, great action.

"You go 🎶five or 10 centimetres in the inside of the kerb, everyone is running wide everywhere, nobody's saying anything, like in qualifying at Turn 19 you could just run wide wherever you liked. And th💯ey killed the race basically like that."