Championship runaway chief Max Verstappen denies he was “aggressive” in the direction of Lando Norris of their crash on the Austrian Grand Prix, and labelles the Briton’s overtaking transfer as “bizarre”.
Though Max Verstappen dominated the vast majority of the Austrian Grand Prix, a mistake throughout his second pit cease noticed him lose his snug hole to the McLaren of Lando Norris.
The Briton was adamant to capitalize on the chance, and with getting inside DRS vary, he tried a number of overtaking manoeuvres. The pair ultimately got here collectively on Lap 64 on the Purple Bull Ring when Verstappen moved barely to the left to fend off the assault from Norris.
The incident noticed each drivers choose up punctures as Norris was compelled out of the race as a result of harm he sustained. Though Verstappen was capable of proceed, he solely completed fifth.
Talking of the incident, Verstappen famous; “We had been battling as we speak and Lando tried to maneuver across the exterior, after which we touched with the rear tyres. It was extremely popular so instantly we had a puncture.
“From my facet it appeared like a bizarre transfer however we clearly have to overview this and naturally we are going to discuss it. The form of the nook additionally offers these sorts of points typically and it’s by no means good to return collectively.
“This, nonetheless, isn’t presently my fundamental focus as we’d like to try the general efficiency as we speak and the difficulties we had with the automotive. It was very arduous to handle the tyres, the primary stint was not too dangerous and I had a reasonably snug lead, the second stint was tough; I believe we stayed out a bit too lengthy after which there was the difficulty with the pit cease.
“The general Workforce efficiency wasn’t what we anticipated it to be and the technique did not work that effectively on this case. It was a disgrace due to the lead that we had. There are positively just a few issues we have to enhance seeking to subsequent week and hopefully we will work on the efficiency, tyres and stability,” concluded Verstappen.
His team-mate Sergio Perez had arrived in Spielberg with excessive hopes as he had been intent on bettering on his disappointing outcomes from the earlier races.
Nonetheless, the Mexican struggled for tempo, and by no means seemed to have the ability to tackle the struggle together with his team-mate or the Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari drivers.
“It is extremely disappointing to be on this place as we speak. The race began very well and we had a strong begin, however then I picked up some harm on Lap 1 and the automotive struggled and was sliding so it was very tough to struggle in the direction of the entrance.
“With the harm, I used to be off stability and made a mistake going into the pitlane and bought a 5 second time penalty which hindered us in the direction of the top of the race.
Reflecting on his efficiency at Spielberg, the Mexican added: “There are some things that we have to look again at and punctiliously analyse all the pieces, the race tempo was a query mark as we speak as I felt like we did some actually good enhancements after yesterday.
“General we lacked efficiency, it was a really tough race and one which I struggled quite a bit in.
“Subsequent weekend I hope we will have a strong, clear exhibiting, and hopefully will be capable to type all the issues from this weekend to have the ability to transfer forwards as there are nonetheless a number of races left. On to Silverstone.”
An amazing begin from each Bulls 💪 Let’s cost on! 🤘#F1 || #AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/ukWC0WWh2r
— Oracle Purple Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 30, 2024
Purple Bull staff boss Christian Horner tried to select the constructive consequence from the Spielberg race, claiming that the staff may be delighted to have prolonged their lead each within the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships.
“For a lot of the race we had it underneath management, we had an 8 second lead and it seemed prefer it was all okay. We misplaced a while within the pit cease as we had a wheel nut that caught on the left rear, that reduce Max’s lead down greater than we might have appreciated and from there it was arduous racing.
“Lando exceeded observe limits and was going to get a penalty however then there was the contact and that was actually irritating, it was powerful racing between these two.
“We’ve nonetheless managed to get some factors although and lengthen each Championships,10 factors within the Drivers’ and 16 within the Constructors’, the tempo of the automotive has been very robust this weekend, we have now had two poles, Max lead the race for all however 9 laps after which the Dash victory yesterday so it hasn’t been completely disastrous, however, sure, nonetheless irritating, we actually would have appreciated the win, however that’s racing,” Horner conlcuced.
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