F1 TURKISH GP: IT WAS NOT VERSTAPPEN’S DAY

Verstappen’s ‘all or nothing’ mentality came to the fore today and that left him with, compared to what was on the cards, nothing.

The argument for Max is that with no title on the line he might as well put everything on the line. And that probably that was his only chance to get past Perez. Being stuck behind him was compromising his race. We saw the damage getting bottled up did to Albon’s race later on.

However, that wasn’t the percentage play for the race, and Verstappen was lucky to get away with no crash. He then munched through another set of intermediates in his haste to catch up.

Not at all the result that looked on the cards pretty much the entire way through the weekend. 

Max Verstappen described his Turkish GP as “super frustrating” after the Red Bull F1 driver spun out of contention for victory and ultimately finished sixth.

Having recovered from an initial poor start, Verstappen looked to be in with a shot of the win in treacherous wet conditions as he rapidly hunted down Sergio Perez and looked to make a challenge for second place.

Verstappen looked to the inside of Perez after the Racing Point driver ran wide coming out of Turn 9 on Lap 18, but the Dutchman ran over the kerbs and lost control of his RB16, which sling-shotted across the track.

Verstappen flat-spotted his tyres and was forced into a stop to take on another set of intermediate tyres as he fell to eighth, before recovering to take sixth at the chequered flag.

“It was very frustrating to be honest,” Verstappen said. “I tried to follow Checo through that kink and then suddenly I just massively washed-out, you get onto the green bit and then a big spin.

“I tried to keep it out of the wall of course but flat-spotted the tyres. After that you very quickly catch up with the guys but you can’t pass. There’s just one line around here, and that’s already super slippery.

“So it’s super frustrating and we were just waiting for people to pit and whatever. The fact the track was not really dry and you keep going on intermediates but at one point when you start wearing the rubber of the intermediates, you are just sliding over that rubber everywhere.

“Really, really difficult. Just following, no grip and truing to survive. Not a great day but hopefully we will never be in this situation again where it is so slippery.”

Verstappen avoided a penalty after being cleared of crossing the white line at the exit of the pit lane. 

Teammate Alex Albon ended up finishing just behind Verstappen in seventh after he too suffered a spin at Turn 4 on Lap 34.

The Thai racer felt he was on for a win until his error which dropped him down from third place, with Lewis Hamilton going on to claim the victory and the 2020 title.

“I feel a bit confused actually about the race,” he admitted. “From the beginning, our starts were poor but then we had very good grip, we could make our way through and then when we boxed for inters we had incredible grip.

“At that point I thought we were in for a win and I thought everything was going to plan. Then I had a little pirouette but still felt good with it being a long race and anything can happen. But then with the other set of tyres there was no grip and no pace, so a lot of head-scratching.

“It’s such a unique weekend. We’ll look into it for sure but also just focus on the next race.”

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