Max Verstappen admits his Italian Grand Prix recovery was a struggle from start-to-finish after claiming P8 for Red Bull.
The Dutchman faced a tough task in moving through the field having started 19th due to taking on the new Spec 4 engine from Honda.
And it was compromised from the very first corner as he made contact with Sergio Perez’s Racing Point despite a careful approach.
“It was not even late braking, I was just following, following, and suddenly everything almost stood still,” he explained via Crash.net.
“I tried to avoid it but I still clipped Sergio on the rear wheel. I think the front wing was a bit down, so we boxed.
“The race was still on. I think we had good pace. I got through quite a lot of cars, but then again I got stuck behind Sergio, they have such a high top speed, I had no chance to get by.
“Again, unlucky with the Virtual Safety Car again, two or three cars overtook me in the pit stop because of that. The whole race, everything was just against us. It doesn’t work out.”
“Sometimes starting at the back works out brilliantly like in Austin last year, but you can’t expect it to be like that all the time of course. Today was about surviving, trying to score a few points, we did that,” he admitted.
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Had he been in clear air, however, starting around where he normally does, Verstappen does believe he could have had a say in the final outcome.
“I could have fought with the guys in the front,” he stated. “I could see them on the screen, I was following my progression. Of course, I knew their lap times, but I was not losing.
“Of course when you get in traffic you lose time, but all the time I was in free air, they were not faster. It’s very promising on a track where you are normally not that competitive.
“But I’m really looking forward to now starting at the front again for Singapore. We’ve had our penalties and hopefully also our trouble. From now on we can just focus on performance.”