Max Verstappen has admitted that he feels frustrated by his race-ending crash in 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which gifted his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez victory.
Verstappen had enjoyed a strong race after overcutting Lewis Hamilton which ultimately gave him the lead on lap 19 and on course for his first pair of consecutive F1 wins, until he suffered a sudden crash at the end of lap 46 on the main straight which caused a red flag.
Speaking post-race on his feelings about his unexpectedly cruel finish, Verstappen said: “To retire from the lead of the race so close to the finish is pretty frustrating. I didn’t feel anything strange with the car and then suddenly the left rear went and I was in the wall quite hard.”
Red Bull have launched an investigation into what caused Verstappen’s crash with the exact cause currently unclear, likewise across at Aston Martin after Lance Stroll suffered a similar failure on the hard compound like Verstappen.
The championship leader though feels that the race was going ‘great’ up until the crash with a ‘perfect’ feeling of the car as he dominantly controlled the race once in the lead, with Red Bull seemingly destined for an one-two finish.
Verstappen therefore felt ‘very happy’ to see Perez take victory after delivering everything that the team wished of him in the race even though the Mexican often had to defend which pleased the ‘frustrated’ Verstappen, adding: “I heard he had to defend for most of the race, so if I couldn’t win, I’m glad he could.”
In terms of the title fight, Verstappen acknowledged that he had ‘missed out on the opportunity to make the gap bigger to Lewis’ given Mercedes’ form on normal race tracks like France, which is where F1 heads from 18-20 June with Hamilton having won the last two F1 races at Circuit Paul Ricard since 2018.
Team Principal, Christian Horner echoed Verstappen’s feelings as he described the Dutchman’s ‘unexplained’ crash as ‘pretty heart-breaking’ to watch, having been set for Red Bull’s first one-two finish since 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix.
‘tremendous job’
Perez delivered a strong drive from sixth to quickly find himself up to third by the end of lap eight and overcut Hamilton in the pit stop window, only to find himself defending second from the Brit until the red flag after Verstappen’s crash.
On the restart, Hamilton briefly seized the lead but a lock-up into Turn One allowed Perez through to drive off to his second F1 win and first for Red Bull, which the Mexican hailed as ‘a tremendous job’ despite feeling ‘very sorry’ for Verstappen who he felt ‘deserved the win’ in what could of been an one-two finish.
Giving his thoughts on his overall race after the podium ceremony to Red Bull, Perez said: “It was a crazy rollercoaster of a race, we were basically flat out from the very first lap and I had Lewis behind pushing me so I couldn’t breathe, it was very challenging but we kept our focus.”
Perez though was disappointed with his standing restart as he felt that he had ‘no grip’ so had braked as late as he could into Turn One, only to see Hamilton make his mistake which in turn gave him victory but complimented the Brit for his performance despite his ‘very painful’ result.
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