Jos Verstappen wins rally race in car and overalls sponsored by Red Bull

Jos Verstappen won the Hannuit Rally, the race which kept him away from the F1 paddock as the Red Bull drama developed.

The father of Max Verstappen, aged 51, won 10 out of 12 stages over the weekend, with fellow driver Renaud Jamoul.

Jos was behind the wheel of a Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 sponsored by Red Bull, and wore overalls also adorned by the famous brand.

After beating the runner-up by 58 seconds, Jos reacted: “I’m very happy.

“We learned a lot and the team operated fantastic. The collaboration with Renaud is amazing so it couldn’t be better.

“It’s the first time driving this rally but it’s a great event with beautiful stages and a couple of really difficult ones.

“For example, the cobblestones are really slippery. Because it was our first time, we learned a lot.

“We made some changes to the car and I was happy with them. It went really well!”

His participation in the Hannuit Rally meant that he was not present at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, which was won by his son Max.

Days earlier, Jos had explosively weighed in on the saga surrounding Christian Horner.

He claimed the F1 team risked being “torn apart” if their team principal stayed, and he accused Horner of “playing the victim”.

Horner has been cleared of wrongdoing by an independent lawyer after accusations against him, and his accuser has now been suspended by Red Bull.

In Saudi Arabia, F1 champion Max was hit with awkward questions about the relationship between his dad and his boss.

“I guess he [Jos] clearly felt like that,” Max said. “But from my side, it doesn’t matter being on one side or the other side.

“As a son of my dad’s it would be weird to be on a different side [than him]. But I just want to focus on the performance side of things and have less talk of what we are doing outside of the track than actual performance.”

Jos is back in action this weekend at the de Rally des Ardennes, the second round of the Belgian Rally Championship.