Max Verstappen says his difficult weekend in Singapore began with the qualifying “fuck up” that saw him end the session in eighth.
The Red Bull driver was told to abort his final hot lap in Q3 as the team had concerns over fuel, denying Verstappen the chance to challenge for pole position.
At the start of the race, he dropped back to 12th place as he struggled to get away from the line.
“Antistall,” Verstappen said when asked about his poor start post-race. “I have no clue why or how. I felt like I did my normal procedure.”
Verstappen climbed back through the field, and was handed a boosted chance to progress further when a Safety Car was called following a crash for AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
However, while attempting to overtake McLaren’s Lando Norris at the restart, Verstappen locked up into Turn 7, and was forced to pit for a fresh set of tyres.
“Once I was in a decent position I tried to go for a move on Lando but somehow I completely bottomed out as soon as I hit the brakes,” Verstappen said.
“The front wheels went in the air and I must have really locked up because I had massive flatspots. So I had to pit again and put new tyres on.”
Verstappen eventually climbed back into the points, overtaking Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel late on for seventh place.
However, the reigning World Champion was left frustrated, with his weekend not unfolding kindly since his Q3 incident on Saturday.
Verstappen’s championship lead still rests at over 100 points, and he is now likely to seat the title in Japan next week, with five races remaining in the season.
“That is normally not the problem, I think we are still 104 in the lead, but it is just a very frustrating weekend,” he said.
“I can of course say it doesn’t matter, we have five races left and we have a big lead, but I want to have a good weekend every single time and we had a really terrible weekend. It started, of course, yesterday with the big fuck up in qualifying.
“I got back in the points, but it is of course not what we wanted and after yesterday we cannot ask for miracles.”
