At the end of qualifying for the
Bahrain Grand Prix, a striking radio message sounded from
Max Verstappen towards his race engineer
Gianpiero Lambiase. The Dutchman apologised despite the fact that he had just scored his 33rd pole position in
F1. Here's why.
This is why Verstappen said sorry to Lambiase
Will Buxton went to investigate on behalf of
F1TV at
Red Bull Racing, where he was given details of Verstappen's apology to GP.
"Apparently, it was just because he hadn't improved in the third sector. And he was that contrite and that apologetic. “Oh, I'm so sorry. I just didn't improve.”"Former Formula One driver Jolyon Palmer added: "This is the standards of Max and GP, though, isn't it? When there's not absolute perfection, there's apologies all around." Presenter Laura Winter was under the impression that something serious had happened, given the tone of Verstappen's radio message. However, it turned out to be purely about the fact that he had not driven a perfect lap in Q3.