Verstappen laments VSC period in Azerbaijan

Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull were looking strong in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix towards the latter stages, but the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car period and the subsequent lower pace meant that they were unable to keep up to speed with the leaders due to their cooling tyres.

With 11 laps remaining, Gasly suffered a gearbox issue which forced him off the track, and even though he didn’t pose an immediate on-track obstacle to the other drivers, a VSC was introduced, meaning that drivers were not allowed to overtake.

Mercedes set new F1 record as Bottas leads Hamilton home in BakuRead more

This negatively affected Gasly’s team-mate, Verstappen, who was closing the gap on the top three.

"I lost a bit of time behind [Sergio] Perez but you don't want to risk it in lap one," the Dutchman said.

"Afterwards the pace we showed on the medium tyre was good because up until the VSC we were catching like seven or eight seconds.

"But after the VSC we just didn't have the grip or tyre temperature and that's key around here. I couldn't push anymore so decided to bring it home."

Verstappen eventually finished fourth and is fourth in the driver’s championship for 2019 - one point adrift of Sebastian Vettel and four points ahead of Charles Leclerc.

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