Red Bull’s Max Verstappen feels that he achieved “damage limitation” with second at 2024 Singapore Grand Prix.
Verstappen failed to beat title rival and pole-sitter, Lando Norris off the line at the start and was left a distant second, as he could only finish 20.945 seconds behind the Brit at the checkered flag with his title lead cut to 51 points with six rounds left.
The three-time champion managed “quite high” degradation in his opening stint on medium tyres, before a switch to hard tyres on Lap 30 amidst a lack of “pace to fight for first unfortunately,” as he endured a quiet race.
Singapore though has been a bogey circuit for Verstappen with no wins to his names on the streets of Marina Bay, which left him relieved to finish second with minimal damage to his championship lead.
“We know that this of course is not our strongest track, but there is still a bit of work to do as we didn’t have the pace that we would have liked, but I think the damage limitation was done.”
F1 now is on a four-week break before regrouping in Austin, Texas, USA, for the US GP which includes a sprint race, with Verstappen keen “… to try and find more performance and better balance in the car when we restart in Austin, so we can fight for a win again and not lose points.”
Verstappen though believes that his “very positive” performance in Singapore marked “a step forward”, after he stuttered to a fifth-placed finish in Baku, Azerbaijan.
CEO and Team Principal, Christian Horner echoed Verstappen’s view on their progress, as he reflected upon the last three races prior to the trip to Singapore but vowed to improve for the trip to Austin.
“If you consider where we were a few weeks ago the progress is visible, and we have the better part of a month to put our heads down and make some progress before we head to Austin. There will be a lot of late nights in Milton Keynes.”