The team had miscalculated how many laps they could fit on a track that was drying out and getting faster. He was instructed to pit as he approached the final corner of the lap and responded by repeating “Why? What the hell;” on the radio. He had already been told to take it easy on his previous flying lap to create a gap to Pierre Gasly who was ahead. The Dutchman ended up eighth on the grid for Sunday’s race. When asked by Motorsport.com about his frustration given how rarely his team let him down, Verstappen made it clear that any criticism can work both ways. “I know, but I like the critical approach,” he said. “Because when I fuck, they can also tell me that you know, I’m wrong. And I think it should be the other way around as well. “Because that’s how we keep each other going, because we want to be perfect and we don’t want to be good. We want to be perfect.” Asked if he had told the team what he was thinking, he said: “I think they know when they saw my face and what I said on the radio.” Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, locks up his brakes and smokes his tires Photo: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images Verstappen was adamant the pitwall should have had its totals on the lap count. “I think we were a little bit surprised that, of course, we got that extra round,” he said. “But you can watch what you see coming. So I don’t really understand how this got lost. “And, of course in hindsight, they should have let me finish the lap before where they told me to stop already to make a gap for the last lap. Of course, all of this was triggered a bit with Pierre in front of me as well. “So that’s why I had to create a gap for that last lap because I was closing in on him. But that’s no excuse. I can’t see how much fuel the car has. But we have all the sensors in the world to monitor this kind of thing. “Well, yes, incredibly disappointing, because I think we had a good car. And I think you could see that as early as the third quarter in errors. The car was really good. The conditions are tough, but I like that. The car also worked very well.” Verstappen was adamant his penultimate lap, aborted when he was told to make a gap from Gasly, would be fast. “It was already over two seconds off my fastest in Q3. I mean, even on the lap I did, I had a big moment in the last sector. And I was already two seconds ago, I think, before I even got to those two corners. “That was big. That might as well have been the right hand on the wall! But we saved it. “Normally, if you have enough fuel in the car, that last lap would be faster. I didn’t know I didn’t have enough fuel in the car, otherwise of course I would have gone for it. “It was fine, it would have been pole for sure. Because like I said, my 1m51.3 or whatever I did, I had a really big slide in that last chicane before the last corner. So there was a lot of media.” Read also:
