It’s Just a Natural Reaction – Verstappen

Max Verstappen was left furious after a “f***ing disaster” of a qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which he put down to his Red Bull team putting him out on track with overheated tyres. Verstappen qualified sixth at the Yas Marina Circuit, behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Verstappen’s struggles were not limited to the top-10 shootout as a failure to get a good enough time in Q2 on ultrasoft tyres left him needing to salvage a Q3 spot on hypersofts – meaning he will start the race on the more fragile tyre.

The five drivers ahead will all start on the harder compound, meaning they can run longer into the race.

Verstappen issued a foul-mouthed summary of things to his team at the end of Q3 and later said his frustrations were amplified in the heat of the moment.

“It’s just a natural reaction,” Verstappen said. “I lost the car, I went off, so I was just disappointed I couldn’t finish that lap.

“It was just in the heat of the moment as it was just not our qualifying. I could feel straightaway I was sliding too much then of course you keep on trying and trying and it’s not working and when I went off I was like ‘Ah for fuck sake’.

“They were a bit hot. I think they were too hot already before and I said maybe we should do something a little bit different.

“I went out of the box and they were even warmer so then I had to slow down even more and then at one point you can’t heat up your brakes like you want to into turn 1 and stuff so yeah, it all got a bit compromised.”