Max Verstappen has not yet won the Formula 1 World Championship title at the Singapore Grand Prix: start screwed up, brakes slammed and bad starting position to blame
It was a botched Formula 1 race weekend in Singapore for Max Verstappen. After problems in practice and running out of fuel in qualifying, the Grand Prix didn’t go optimally for the Dutchman either with a botched start and a major braking incident
In fact, Verstappen could have been world champion by now at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but a seventh-place finish with a simultaneous win for team-mate Sergio Perez and a second-place finish for Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was not enough for that.
The Red Bull driver says he “dropped the clutch” at the start, which led to his poor getaway from the start line. Verstappen dropped from eighth to twelfth at turn one after his car almost went into anti-stall mode.
Marko: Verstappen at the start “in the wrong mode “
He fought his way back through the field but braked while trying to overtake Lando Norris on lap 40, forcing him to make another pit stop and putting him back on track in 13th. Verstappen eventually finished the race one place better than he had started, but says: “We’re not where we want to be.”
“I dropped the clutch and was almost in anti-stall, so I have to analyse why that happened, but of course you lose a lot of places,” Verstappen said.
“He was in the wrong mode and because of that the car almost stopped,” Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko explained his protégé’s poor start. “Yes, that can happen, but the whole weekend was actually not good with Max. So it wasn’t a birthday present,” Marko said.
Verstappen on Norris manoeuvre: Didn’t brake too late!
Verstappen continued, “From then on I tried to overtake a few people, which partly worked, but then you’re a bit stuck in a train. Everyone has their tyres up to temperature so it’s really hard to follow. “
“Then of course we were a bit lucky, some people made some mistakes,” Verstappen said. “We were fifth and tried to pass Lando for fourth and as soon as I was next to him I braked, not even too late, but I sat up on the ground. I was struggling with the ground there before and because I was off the racing line it was probably even bumpier.”
“As soon as I braked, the front wheels jumped in the air and that was it. I just kept going straight. I had to pit again because of the massive vibrations, put on new tyres and came back into the points from last place,” Verstappen analysed.
Verstappen: It all starts with qualifying
He adds that his messed-up Sunday was partly due to his difficulties in qualifying, where he was forced to abandon a potential pole lap because he ran out of fuel.
“We are not where we want to be, but of course it starts with yesterday. You put yourself in a situation like that and it can either work brilliantly, you can go back to the front, or it’s very frustrating like we had.”
Asked if it was any consolation to have overtaken Sebastian Vettel for seventh on the last lap, Verstappen replied, “Better than eighth, but that’s not what I’m here for, not with a car like the one we showed in practice, it’s just incredibly chaotic.”
“It’s not bad of course, but it’s not where we want to be and of course where we normally need to be. You saw it of course with Checo [Perez] today that the win could have been there, but of course after yesterday, it was always going to be a difficult race. “
