Verstappen draws very painful conclusion after disaster at Red Bull Ring
F1 News
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. That was Max Verstappen's verdict after the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman started in pole position and continued to lead the field for a long time, but at one point, Lando Norris came very close. After several laps of on-track fighting, the damage was done. Verstappen and Norris dropped back due to punctures.
Verstappen began speaking to the media, including GPblog, about the only good thing about Sunday in Austria. "I think the first stint was quite good. Then, of course, at the end of that first stint, I caught quite a bit of traffic, we should have just boxed for me personally because I just gave up free lap times. So, we basically did a lot of things wrong today," said the Dutchman.
The Red Bull driver continued. "I think, for me personally, it started with the strategy. Then, the pit stops were a disaster. The first one was already bad. The second one was even more of a disaster. And then, of course, you give free lap times. It's seconds that you give away, six seconds over those two pit stops. And then it's a race again."
What went wrong at Red Bull, according to Verstappen?
"I think also we put ourselves in that position of course, and an accident happened between us, which you never want to happen. But, yeah, we did everything wrong that we could have done wrong today," Verstappen concluded in a very painful fashion after the race. Asked what exactly went wrong at Verstappen's second pit stop, he responded with: "Well, the left rear, I think. I don't know exactly what happened there. The tyre, that's why. The tyre didn't come off. So we lost a lot of time there."
With Verstappen falling back to fifth and Norris and his team even deciding to put the car in the pit box, George Russell was able to drive to first place and claim the Grand Prix victory.