IMAGE: Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the pits during qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix. Photograph: Mohd Rasfan/Reuters
Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen gave Red Bull a blast of radio rage after the team told him to abort his final qualifying lap at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday, landing him in an undesirable eighth position.
“Why? Why?” screamed the Dutch 25-year-old when told to pit instead of going for pole position at a race he needs to win if he is to secure a second championship with five rounds to spare.
“What the…what are you guys saying? Unbelievable, mate. I don’t get it. What the…is this about?,” Verstappen raged, with the expletives bleeped out on the television broadcast.
His race engineer replied that they would explain it all privately.
A still frustrated Verstappen afterwards told Sky Sports television that there would have been insufficient fuel in the car to provide a mandatory post-qualifying sample, had he not aborted the lap.
“On the final lap they told me to box, and then I realised what was going to happen if we ran out of fuel. That’s just incredibly frustrating and shouldn’t happen.” he said. “We should have seen that way earlier. I’m not at all happy at the moment. I know, of course, it’s always a team effort. I can make mistakes and the team can make mistakes, but it’s never acceptable. “Of course, you learn from it but this is bad, to be honest. It shouldn’t happen.”
Verstappen has his first chance to clinch the title in Sunday’s race, but he must score 22 points more than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who starts on pole at a circuit where overtaking is difficult.
He must also score 13 points more than his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who starts on the front row aiming for victory.
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