Verstappen: I turned in too early and it all went wrong

Sensational Spanish Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen went from hero-to-zero when he made a costly mistake during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix which resulted in him crashing his Red Bull heavily into the barriers exiting the swimming pool complex.

"I turned in too early, so I clipped the wall, broke the suspension and went straight into the wall," explained the 18 year old, who two weeks earlier stood on the podium in Barcelona as the youngest grand prix winner in the history of the sport.

In the morning FP3 session; in Monte Carlo; he had a close shave with the Armco barriers at Massenet, but was lucky to escape without much apparent damage to his Red Bull. But he was not so lucky a few hours later during qualifying.

With his teammate Daniel Ricciardo going on to take pole position, it would be fair to expect Verstappen to have been up among the front runners, but the incident had him out of contention before the end of Q1.

"I felt quite good,” he said of the lap before he crashed. "On my first push lap I felt more confident than all the other laps, also in terms of car balance because my second sector was two tenths faster than I had been."

"So it was all coming together, but then into the chicane I underestimated the grip I had, turned in a bit too early, and it all went wrong," he admitted afterwards.

It is notoriously difficult to overtake on the streets of Monte Carlo, and Verstappen knows he does not have an easy task ahead of him on race day.

"We’ll see what happens but if you start 21st, it will get pretty difficult," said the teenager who, in his Monaco debut, last year crashed heavily with Romain Grosjean during the race.

Red Bull team boss said, "Max has had a tough day. He just clipped the barrier on entry into the chicane and it ended the session for him. It’s unfortunate for us but just demonstrates the margins on the tight streets of Monte Carlo."

"He’s naturally disappointed but he’s a level-headed guy and he will bounce back and be focused on getting the best out of tomorrow’s race, added Horner.