Verstappen rues problems after P6 in Bahrain

Max Verstappen was left to rue a series of problems that affected him during the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Dutchman admitting that ending the race in P6 was a decent outcome considering that “everything went wrong”.

After lining up in P7 on the grid off the back of a difficult Qualifying, Verstappen’s issues looked to have continued into Sunday’s race when Red Bull’s light system failed to work during his first pit stop, meaning that it continued to show as red rather than switching to green.

The World Champion reported struggles with his brakes as he lost positions back out on track, while another tricky moment occurred at his second pit stop when the front right tyre proved troublesome to remove, resulting in a delay that dropped Verstappen to the back of the order.

While he went on to recover positions as the race progressed – which included a late move on Pierre Gasly to secure sixth place – Verstappen admitted that the issues currently being experienced by the squad were highlighted during the 57-lap encounter.

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 13: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull — Verstappen experienced issues during both of his pit stops in the Bahrain Grand Prix

“Basically everything went wrong!” the Dutch driver conceded afterwards. “We had a poor start, too much wheelspin when I dropped the clutch, and then the first stint again [I had] basically the same problems that I had in Qualifying, plus we were just overheating our tyres too much compared to the competition ahead of us.

“Then [at] the first stop I think the lights got stuck on, but of course I don’t want to drive through the lights – you want to stay and stick to the protocol of the team – so that put me into traffic as well, then the hard tyres unfortunately didn’t work so I was sliding around even more than I was on the soft.

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“Then we boxed again, [which was an] even worse pit stop, so then I was last. And, yeah, considering everything, to be honest to finish P6 is then alright. I mean, more than that was anyway not possible even with good pit stops or other tyres selected, realistically.

“It’s of course not what we want, but it’s just where we are at with our car and the tyre behaviour that we have with the car. Everything is just highlighted even more on a track like this.”

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 13: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing looks on — Verstappen admitted that Red Bull are facing a "tough" situation with their current car issues

When asked how much the situation is hurting at the moment – in terms of expecting the team to struggle on weekends where tyre degradation may be an issue – Verstappen responded: “Yeah, it’s just tough.

“You have to hang on, try to improve the situation, but it was just a bit stuck at the moment and hopefully we can improve soon.”

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With Oscar Piastri taking victory in Sakhir, the McLaren driver has overtaken Verstappen for second place in the Drivers’ Championship, while Lando Norris remains in the lead.