Max Verstappen missed out on pole position in Singapore because Red Bull played poker and made an embarrassing mistake: “That’s really bad,” he grumbled
What was going on with Max Verstappen? Twice the Dutchman was well ahead of Charles Leclerc after the second sector in the closing stages of Singapore Formula One qualifying but both times he aborted his lap, meaning he will only start Sunday’s Grand Prix from eighth on the grid. A misunderstanding was to blame.
It was curious that Verstappen aborted the penultimate lap despite being 0.767 seconds ahead of Leclerc, whose best time was to last until the end, with two purple sectors. But that was intentional on Red Bull’s part, as Verstappen ran into Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and would rather keep his distance and put everything on the last lap than finish on the current time.
If he had been too close to Gasly on the last lap, he would not have been able to attack properly. But that was when the drying track was fastest, so Red Bull wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. And it seemed to work: Verstappen was nine tenths of a second off the fastest time after two sectors and looked like the safe pole setter.
But then, to the astonishment of many, he turned into the pits – and to his annoyance. “What the fuck? Why?” he asked angrily on the radio. The answer is bitter from Red Bull’s point of view.
Red Bull miscalculates
“In this discussion it was overlooked that we only refuelled for five laps and that’s why we had to stop the last lap,” admitted motorsport consultant Helmut Marko to ‘ORF’.
Because if Verstappen had crossed the finish line again, he would have had to drive another lap afterwards. Then he would have had too little fuel in the tank and would presumably have been taken out of the classification. “That was a miscommunication,” Marko is annoyed.
Verstappen looked set for an incredible lap at the end of Q3, but he pits, and will start P8 on SundaySingaporeGP F1 pic. twitter.com/PXjdRKIrcW
– Formula 1 (@F1) October 1, 2022
“That something like this happens, we have always said, is possible. It can’t just happen to Ferrari, but of course it’s doubly annoying that it’s happening here.” And it’s even more annoying in retrospect that they aborted the lap for it, which would have already been enough for pole position.
“According to our calculation, he would have driven 48.5,” says the Austrian. That would have made Verstappen just under a second faster than Leclerc, who took 1:49.412.
Verstappen served: “Incredibly frustrating!”
Instead of starting from pole position, the world champion will thus only start from eighth place on Sunday and is suitably disgruntled. “They told me to stop the [penultimate] lap, so I said okay, we can do that,” Verstappen described.
“But then on the last lap they told me to pit and that’s when I realised what was going to happen,” said the Dutchman. “We ran out of fuel. “
“That’s incredibly frustrating and shouldn’t happen,” he scolds, criticising his team, “Even if you’re low on fuel or don’t plan to do those six laps, you should at least track that throughout the session to know you’re not going to make it. We should have realised that much earlier,” he frets.
“I’m not happy at all at the moment. Of course I know it’s always a team effort and I can make mistakes, and the team can make mistakes too. But that is never acceptable,” he says. “Of course you learn from it, but this is really bad. Something like that shouldn’t happen. “
Still capable of winning on Sunday?
Verstappen now faces a difficult task on Sunday. While he has also won from grid positions seven, ten and 14 in his five most recent victories, Red Bull know that it is likely to be more difficult in Singapore.
“After all, it’s similar to Monte Carlo. Overtaking is very difficult,” says Marko, but still believes in a possible victory. “Supposedly rain is forecast and then of course a lot is possible again,” the Austrian said.
Red Bull simply miscalculated. Bitter: The aborted lap before would have been enough … F1 SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/CjetDXF9r6
– Norman Fischer (@NormanMST) October 1, 2022
And: “The positive trend is that we are fast enough to be able to race at the front. But fighting up front here is going to be really, really hard.”
However, Pierre Gasly, who will start just ahead of Verstappen, is not worried after recent performances, even though he believes it will be “a bit more difficult” on this track. “Maybe it will take him 15 laps to be in front,” he laughs. “But for sure he will finish on the podium – behind Ferrari, who look pretty competitive this weekend. “
