World championship leader far behind
Qualifying farce for Max: “This is just nonsense”
World championship leader Max Verstappen starts the Brazilian Grand Prix from a long way back and was furious after the farce in qualifying. "That's just bullshit," raged the Red Bull driver.
Verstappen had already dropped out in Q2 in twelfth place. Due to his penalty, he will only start from 17th place, while his strongest rival in the world championship, Lando Norris, will start the race from pole position.
Qualifying could not have been more turbulent. The red flag was waved a total of five times (!) due to accidents and the session was interrupted. Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Alexander Albon and Lance Stroll had to contend with the slippery track conditions and ended up in the wall. Stroll's crash in particular caused a stir; the Aston Martin driver was the main reason why Verstappen did not finish qualifying further up the field.
In Stroll's case, race control waited a whole 52 seconds for the red flag to be waved. This allowed some drivers to complete their fast lap, but it was too late for Verstappen.
If the red flag had been shown immediately after the accident, Verstappen might have been able to complete another fast lap with a quick out-lap. "It was a clear accident and then they wait 30, 40 seconds. The others can still do their lap - and we can't. That's unbelievable. That's just nonsense," raged Verstappen on Sky.
It wasn't just Verstappen who was angry, team boss Christian Horner was also annoyed: "I don't understand why it takes so long for the red flag to come out. That's a big accident in turn 3, one of the most dangerous corners on the track."
"This is now the second day in a row where there have been very late decisions. Yesterday VSC, today the red flag," said Horner, who clarified: "You just have to focus on safety. There are other cars coming through and you can't say we'll wait until the others have finished their lap. It doesn't work like that."
FIA waited and saw
According to the FIA, Stroll kept trying to move his car away, which is why they waited longer with the red flags. TV cameras also showed that Stroll kept moving slightly forwards and backwards. Sky expert Timo Glock nevertheless remarked in amazement: "You could see that Stroll only had three wheels and no rear wing." Peter Bayer, CEO of Racing Bulls, was also irritated: "We didn't understand why the red flag didn't come." Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Pérez also found the long time until the red flags came out "very strange".
It is what it is and Verstappen will have to make up a lot of ground in the race if he doesn't want to lose too many points in the championship battle with Norris.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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