Max Verstappen revealed an unexpected sudden high burst of power was responsible for his crash during Q1 in qualifying for the Bahrain GP.
The Red Bull driver was comfortably through to the second part of the all-important session to decide the grid but opted to do an additional flying lap. It was going through the kink of Turn 2 though when the rear came round and sent him sliding into the barrier on the outside of Turn 3.
As a result, the Dutchman will start Sunday’s race from 15th place but afterwards accepted there was nothing he could have done to prevent it.
“I studied the data a bit before I came here [to the interview bullpen], and suddenly we had 150 horsepower increase which was a bit odd because the corner is not flat out,” he said.
“Suddenly it spun up the rear tyres quite aggressively and spun. I didn’t anticipate it at all and suddenly 150 horsepower extra and you already think you are on the limit, it is quite a lot.”
Though likely frustrated not to be up with teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who will start fourth, Verstappen wasn’t too downbeat and is confident of a comeback.
“It should be alright, up to P5 should be alright,” he claimed. “A little bit of luck with a Safety Car would be good.”
As for his Australian partner, Ricciardo was left with mixed feelings about his Red Bull’s performance after seeing the Ferraris and Mercedes’ just out of reach.
“In a way it was closer than expected,” he said, speaking to Sky Sports. “I think to pole it was maybe four tenths or something, that’s encouraging. But it’s still frustrating to be at the tail end of that.”
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The 28-year-old has high hopes that he will better positioned to challenge those ahead over the 58-lap race distance, though.
“Practice and qualifying are okay but Sunday is my favourite day of the week,” he joked. “Yesterday our race pace didn’t look bad but our car in the second practice wasn’t as good as it was in FP1.
“That’s encouraging to know that our car will be even better than what we showed yesterday and hopefully puts us in the fight.”
