After all, the Ferrari of his main competitor is on pole, and Max himself is only 8th. And in Singapore it will be more difficult to break through somewhere, as in Monza or Spa: after all, a technical urban track with 20 turns favors overtaking much less.
The final round of the Red Bull leader looked even stranger: instead of rushing to the finish line with claims for pole position, the fans saw this race into the pits under powerful curses:
And Verstappen had claims for pole – compared to his sectors with Leclerc, he drove Charles 0.9 seconds , according to Red Bull, he would have won the pole with an advantage of 0.6 seconds).
It’s just that the team demanded that Verstappen throw a circle literally at the last corners: if Max completed it on the track, he would have to return to the pits for all the long 20 turns, and as a result, his RB18 would not have a liter of fuel left for the mandatory FIA check . Punishment for lack of fuel is severe – automatic disqualification from the session: Max would have gone to the very tail.
Did Red Bull really let down a possible two-time champion at a potentially title Grand Prix? Actually no: here Max is a little to blame himself: he drove a very good previous fast lap, but several times he did not keep the car at the beginning of the third sector. Since there might not have been enough time to visit the pits (the fastest lap in Singapore was 110 seconds, and the slowest lap was 2.5 minutes at all, they didn’t have time to reach the checkered flag), the team allowed Verstappen to take a chance and drive the second qualifying attempt immediately after the first. Moreover, even before the start of the second, Max was worried about resources: he asked the bridge for information on whether he had enough battery power .
“On the penultimate lap, the feeling was great, but I was told to quit the lap. OK. And then on the last lap I was told to return to the pits, and then I realized what happened. We just didn’t have enough fuel. Just a huge disappointment, such things should not happen. ”, – Max said in an interview after the qualification.
But in general, the potential double is a little to blame for himself: his car was blown off in the third sector of almost every lap in the final segment. Approximately like this:
Why? The point is changeable weather: 2 hours before qualifying it rained in Singapore, and the practice was carried out on rain tires. The first two qualifying segments also passed on the intermediate, and only in the third stage did everyone go on the “soft” for a dry track.
But the Asian track is very long, the session takes place in the evening, and the asphalt coating dries unevenly. More or less stable on slicks, you can only go along the “rut” – the racing trajectory – with minimal deviations.
Max, in his trademark style, took risks and squeezed the maximum out of each turn, driving into more damp areas. As a result, by the third sector, his tires cooled down (much stronger than those of his rivals), and the rear end stopped clinging to the track. So I had to catch the car.
It wasn’t just Max who had the problem: Alonso tried the same thing and kissed the wall lightly.However, Verstappen believes that it is a miscalculation: “We should have discovered the problem much earlier. I’m not happy at all. I can make mistakes too, the team sometimes makes mistakes. Just making mistakes is never acceptable. Feelings are still very bad. This shouldn’t have happened.”
Yes, the team and Max himself were extremely aptly synchronously mistaken.
