MEXICO CITY: Max Verstappen expressed that he was more concerned about the speed of his car than the penalties he received in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix and described Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s sanctions as “excessive”.

The triple Formula 1 world champion started the race alongside Ferrari’s race winner Carlos Sainz but finished sixth after receiving two 10-second penalties for pushing championship rival Lando Norris off the track.

The result reduced the Dutch driver’s championship lead over McLaren’s Norris to 47 points with four rounds remaining.

When asked if he would do anything differently, Verstappen joked that he might have a drink while waiting at the pit stop next time.

“So the engine was off for 20 seconds, so I had plenty of time,” he added.

Verstappen said 20 seconds was too much but he wouldn’t cry about it.

“The biggest problem I had was that today was a bad day in terms of race pace. It was quite obvious on the medium tyres, on the hard tyres.” he told reporters.

The champion felt that the turn four incident that triggered the first penalty was “more of a question mark”, while the second penalty in turn seven was “more of a question mark”.

“It’s okay to get back to sixth place, but then I couldn’t even fight the Mercedes cars in front, I couldn’t hold on at all. I was sliding so much, I couldn’t brake,” he said.

Verstappen and Norris also clashed in Austin a week ago, and the McLaren driver was penalized when he was pushed to the outside, but went ahead and did not give up his place.

Verstappen: “Last week there was no problem, this week there was a 20-second penalty. That’s the situation.” he said. “I keep racing.”

Horner told reporters separately that the penalties were “very harsh” and were a clear reaction to what happened in Austin and the backlash at the time.

“I think we are in danger of reversing overtaking laws, where drivers will try to put their noses forward at the top and then claim that they should be given room at the exit (corner).” added.

“This is something that needs to be fixed so that everyone knows what is acceptable between now and the end of the season. Otherwise we will be in a mess in the coming races.”

Horner said Red Bull would not seek the right to review the stewards’ decision, as McLaren did after the US Grand Prix.