Max Verstappen, betrayed by his gearbox, admits his mistake

During the qualifications, Max Verstappen chose to try a daring strategy by opting for soft tires during Q2, while the rest of the field (except for the Mercedes) used the super softs, the most efficient for a single lap.

If this hasn’t helped his takeoff, the Dutchman hoped to recover during the race, even though he knew that the start might not be easy to take: « My start was correct. Being on the hardest compounds, I knew it would be difficult to get going and stay ahead of Seb. I was happy with my pace and felt comfortable. It was a great battle with Kimi, which I was happy to pass. »

The offbeat strategy paid off as he was able to catch up to Nico Rosberg during his second stint: « I am sure we were able to race with the Mercedes today, but it is so difficult to overtake them because of their straight-line speed. I left a gap with Nico at the end to save my tires and maintain the gap with the Ferraris. »

But it was then that his race was hampered by a misunderstanding during his pit stop for his second tire change. The young driver accepts responsibility: The problem during the pit stop was on my end. The team asked me to push the lap before. So, I thought I was supposed to come in. I stopped and realized they hadn’t called me in.

However, this did not impact the final result since Max Verstappen was forced to park his Red Bull at the side of the track due to a gearbox problem: « Shortly after getting back on track, I heard a loud noise coming from the engine. So, I pulled the clutch. They then asked me to release it again and continue to try to figure out what was happening. Unfortunately, they couldn’t resolve it, and that was the end of my race. »

The Virtual Safety Car caused by the Dutchman’s stop resulted in collateral damage: Daniel Ricciardo. Indeed, Nico Rosberg was then able to pit without losing time and especially to overtake the Australian after giving up second place at the first corner. The man with the eternal smile preferred to focus on the positive: “I think we were on track for second place but the VSC didn’t help us today. I won’t be too disappointed. It’s just too cool to be on the podium here.”

This allowed Red Bull to further increase its lead over Ferrari, which now stands at 53 points with only three races remaining.