Max Verstappen was left frustrated after he finished a scrappy Singapore Grand Prix in seventh place.
The Red Bull driver saw his five-race winning streak end after his efforts to make progress from eighth on the grid were repeatedly frustrated. His race began to go wrong at the start when he bogged down and fell to 12th position.“I dropped the clutch at the start and [had] anti-stall,” he told Sky. “Then of course you lose a lot of spots.”
Verstappen recovered to sixth place by lap 21. “I tried to pass a few people, some worked but then you get stuck in a little bit of a train,” he explained. “Everyone has their tyres quite up to temperature so it’s really hard to follow.”
He gained another place when Lewis Hamilton hit the wall and had to pit. But Verstappen made a mistake of his own at turn seven after one restart and damaged the tyres he had just put on.
“We were a bit lucky, some people had a few mistakes,” he said. “We were in fifth, I tried to go for fourth, to pass Lando [Norris].
“As I got alongside him I braked – not even late, but I bottomed out because I was struggling already a lot there with bottoming and being off-line probably was even more bumpy. So as soon as I braked the front wheels jumped in the air and that was it, I just went straight on.
“So then I had to box again because of the massive vibrations and put new tyres on and come from last back into the points.”
Having fallen to 13th place, he recovered to finish seventh, passing Hamilton and, on the final lap, Sebastian Vettel. However he said the result is “not where we want to be” after missing out on pole position yesterday after the team failed to put enough fuel in his car during qualifying.
“Of course, from yesterday you put yourself in a spot like that and it can either work brilliantly, you can drive back to the front, or it’s just very frustrating like we had,” he said.
“It’s of course better than eighth but it’s not what I’m here for. Not with a car like that. Look at what we showed in practice, it’s just incredibly messy.”
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SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
2nd October 2022, 18:14
It was a nice change of pace for everyone involved though.
I am sure he’ll win plenty more this season. Seeing one go to Checo was nice for once.
Rascasse
2nd October 2022, 18:44
I’m a Max fan and I completely agree. Checo drove like a lion today…
jff
2nd October 2022, 18:45
What impressed me still was that he at least tried to get the car up as high as possible, with all the risks involved.
He was on the attack the whole race, which he doesn’t need for his championship race (not even for the WCC one).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd October 2022, 21:55
Yes, but I wouldn’t expect any less from verstappen, or even leclerc, in these circumstances.
Mayrton
3rd October 2022, 10:36
I agree. Same goes for Hamilton
Jazz (@jazz)
2nd October 2022, 19:15
Verstappen struggled without the benefit of DRS which usually flatters his overtaking abilities. Looked plain average today despite the added $10m strapped on his car.
MaddMe (@)
2nd October 2022, 20:09
@jazz At least he did manage a few overtaking manoeuvres without DRS. I don’t think any driver managed any overtakes in the top 8 either aside from the race start. Even with DRS, LeClerc was unable to pass Checo.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd October 2022, 21:57
Yes, had the feeling red bull was again the fastest car though, perez has some good races on occasion, but you know how far behind verstappen he usually is. I don’t think it looks good for ferrari that their fastest driver was unable to pass red bull’s slowest one, look how far behind sainz was all the race.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd October 2022, 23:14
As @maddme points out, Verstappen was doing a good enough job of finding ways to pass others while getting through the field, but with the cars in the top 6-8 it was just far harder to pass, even later with DRS, so your argument doesn’t really cut it there @jazz
I do think you underestimate how solid Perez is when the car is doing fine, he was clearly at least OK on pace all race, and there was not too much pace difference between the Red Bull and Leclerc there @esploratore1.
Jazz (@jazz)
3rd October 2022, 20:08
I was alluding to the fact that two of the cars Verstappen passed on his way back up from 12th were the AT’s who casually waved him by.
Wayne
3rd October 2022, 7:52
Haha good 1 i couldn’t have said it better. #stripmax&redbull of their championships..
RomTrain
2nd October 2022, 20:39
Mistakes in qualy, at start and squaring his tyres in the race, still P7 due to superior performance of RBR. Lets see whether this car advantage was achieved in a legit way.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd October 2022, 22:00
Yes, not a great weekend for verstappen, which is kinda what I was pointing out earlier in the season after hearing about him being flawless and leclerc not etc., verstappen made mistakes too before this race, like q3 in hungary + spin in the race and going off with a gust of wind during spain in the race, he just didn’t pay for them unlike leclerc. I think the majority of the points difference has been made by the terrible ferrari strategies (not reliability, they’re pretty even) and the fact red bull now outdevelopped ferrari.
AlexTR (@petrucci)
2nd October 2022, 20:47
Good old everyone-is-worse-than-me Verstappen
EmBee
2nd October 2022, 21:25
He’s still a hero for me. He made two mistakes that cost him dearly, but he never stopped fighting. He was probably still the fastest on the track and virtually the only one who was able to overtake again and again no matter the conditions, tyres, DRS… Checo and Charles did great job, but they did not overtake anyone from the very start. Carlos was happy eto keep third, Lewis made several mistakes too, but was not able to overtaky anyone again. McLaren and Aston did both well strategically, but again, apart from the start, just cruising. Max was just unlucky this time, what just hase to happen from time to time. He was lucky many times before this season…
Axel
2nd October 2022, 23:29
Don’t really understand all the hate in the comments. Sure it wasn’t his best weekend, but if RB hadn’t messed up yesterday he probably would’ve been on pole by a solid margin and even with a bad start it’s likely he would’ve contended for the win then. He made some good moves on a track where its tough to pass, albeit with a car advantage.
It wasn’t as good as earlier weekends have been, but it definitely wasn’t bad either. One bad drive doesn’t ‘prove’ he’s overrated, bad or not a worthy champ. Just proves he’s human like the other 19 guys on the grid.
tielemst
3rd October 2022, 9:58
Are you new here? Hate comments to Max or Lewis usually have nothing to do with their driving or their comments, but more with people for some reason hating one of them and worshipping the other.
Axel
3rd October 2022, 11:11
Not new, just disapointed…
Patrick (@paeschli)
3rd October 2022, 8:08
My thoughts as well. He had plenty of overtakes and was on course for a top 4 finish until his mistake. He then did a pretty decent job of recovering as much points as possible. He had a better race than Hamilton IMHO.