Max Verstappen appeared to be more worried about his car's speed than the penalties he picked up at Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix. His Red Bull team boss Christian Horner described the sanctions as “excessive”.

The three-time Formula One world champion started alongside Ferrari race winner Carlos Sainz but finished sixth after picking up two 10-second penalties for pushing title rival Lando Norris off the track.

The result reduced the Dutch driver's championship lead over McLaren's Norris to 47 points with four laps to go.

When asked if he would have done anything differently, Verstappen joked that next time he might go for a drink while he waited at the pit stop.

“I mean, the engine was off for 20 seconds, so I had enough time,” he added.

Verstappen said the 20 seconds were a lot but he wasn't going to cry about it.

“The biggest problem I have is that today was a bad day in terms of race pace. That was again very clear on the mediums and on the hard tires,” he told reporters.

The champion felt the turn four incident that triggered the first penalty was “more of a question mark”, while the second one at turn 7 “is what it is”.

“Coming back to sixth is fine, but then I couldn't even compete against the Mercedes cars in front of me, I just had no grip. I just slid a lot and couldn’t brake,” he said.

In Austin a week ago, Verstappen and Norris also clashed and it was the McLaren driver who received a penalty when he was pushed wide, but ended up in front and never gave up the spot.

“Last week it was fine, this week it was a 20 second penalty. That’s it,” said Verstappen. “I’ll just keep racing.”

Horner told reporters separately that the penalties were “very harsh” and an obvious response to what happened in Austin and the backlash at the time.

“I think we are in danger of turning the overtaking laws on their head, so that drivers simply try to be ahead at the apex and then claim that they need to be given space at the exit (of the corner),” he said added.

“It's something that just needs to be sorted out so everyone knows what is acceptable by the end of the season. Otherwise we will end up in chaos at the coming races.”

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