Max Verstappen described his day in the office at the 2022 Singapore Grand Prix as incredibly messy, after finishing seventh, having started from eighth.
After Red Bull messed up qualifying not making sure Max Verstappen has enough fuel on his final outing in Q3, asking him to abort his final hot lap – a potential pole lap – to avoid disqualification for not having the mandate one liter sample of fuel for post qualifying scrutineering.
Hence the 2021 Formula 1 Champion had to start the race from eighth on the grid, but he lost places after a bad start saw him go backwards, and then later he had a massive lockup trying to overtake McLaren’s Lando Norris, which required another pitstop to replace his flat-spotted tyres.
He recovered to finish seventh, as the reigning Champion was simply all over the place on a day where he could’ve secure his second F1 Drivers’ Crown.
After the race, Verstappen revealed the reason behind his bad start, and told Sky Sports F1: “I dropped the clutch and [had] anti-stall, so I need to analyse why that happened. Then, of course, you lose a lot of spots.
“From there onwards I tried to pass a few people, [and] some worked, but then you get stuck in a little bit of a train. Everyone has their tyres quite up to temperature, so it’s really hard to follow,” he added.
Mistake behind Norris caused by bottoming
The Red Bull ace revealed bottoming was behind his lockup chasing Norris, he said: “We were a bit lucky the times when people had a few mistakes.
“We were in fifth, tried to go for fourth to pass Lando [Norris], [and] as soon as I got alongside him I braked, not even late, but I bottomed out, because I was struggling already a lot there with bottoming.
“I had to box again because of the massive [tyre] vibrations, put new tyres on and came from last back into the points. It’s not where we want to be, but that already starts from yesterday.
You put yourself in a spot like that, it can either work brilliantly [and] you can drive back to the front, or it’s just very frustrating like we had,” he reflected.
“Of course, it’s better than eighth, but it’s not what I’m here for, not with a car like that and not with what we showed in practice,” the Championship leader said, concluding: “[It was] incredibly messy.”
MAX GOES STRAIGHT ON!! 😳 He rejoins in P8 with heavily flat stopped tyres! pic.twitter.com/DANeWazpqf
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) October 2, 2022