Red Bull star rages

Verstappen furious: “It doesn’t matter now”

Max Verstappen

(Bild: AFP)

With no chance against the McLaren duo, tormented by the pits with a botched pit strategy and ultimately deprived of third place by a collision with Lewis Hamilton - the Hungarian Grand Prix was anything but ideal for world champion Max Verstappen! No wonder the Red Bull star repeatedly vented his anger during the race - and remained "charged" after the race ...

There is no question that if Verstapppen and his car had been as well oiled as the Formula 1 world champion's mouth, there would have been no question of a victory.

"... and thus shorten***** my race!"
The Red Bull man went on a rant practically from lap one, for example after the team's decision to "give back" the second place won in the first corner because of a possible penalty from the stewards, or because of the pit strategy.

"We let ourselves be undercut twice and thereby shorten***** my race," said Verstappen's angry outburst over the radio, which was heard by millions of race fans worldwide.

Then, very late in the race, the crash with Mercedes driver Hamilton, who was at fault for Verstappen - and whose punishment he wanted to initiate via his race engineer.

"That's childish!"
But Gianpiero Lambiase did not play along: Rather, Verstappen himself was the culprit, said the man at the Red Bull command post. And Lambiase added: "I'm not going to get involved in a radio argument, Max. That's childish!"

Curious: Even the TV producers were now apparently getting a bit creeped out by Verstappen, as no more radio messages from the Dutchman were shown or played until the end of the race ...

"It doesn't matter now!"
Be that as it may: after the race, the Red Bull star made no secret of his state of mind and now also lashed out at the stewards.

Regarding both the return of second place after the start and the accident with Hamilton, he hinted that the decisions were not always comprehensible to him anyway ("It's a bit like a casino, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!") and apart from that: "It doesn't matter!"