The first-ever visit to Jeddah conjured up a hugely controversial and dra꧅matic 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 exp🦂erience 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 Versꦐtappen from pole to behind Hamilton on thᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe grid at a restart after he had overtaken Hamilton off-track earlier.  

Horner described the negotiation as being like “being down the souk” and “unusual”. The Red Bull boss was also aggrieved at t🥂he two time penalties Verstappen received for incidents invol🐷ving Hamilton. 

However, Brawn stood up for Masi in his usuꦰal post-race column on the officia𝔉l F1 website. 

“I’d like to compliment the FIA and Race﷽ Director M🌟ichael Masi in handling well what was an extremely difficult race. I know some people 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 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 ꦬdiscussion goes on several times during a race. If a driver gets by someone or 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 outcome, or it gets passed to the stew🥂ards to handle it.

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