Verstappen blames “odd weekend” after finishing second best to Hamilton

Max Verstappen blamed an “odd weekend” for his lack of pace in the Red Bull after he failed to beat Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix.

Verstappen, who arrived in Portugal just a point behind Hamilton, led the seven-time F1 champion at one point following an early race safety car, only for a mistake a few laps later at turn 14 to allow his main title rival to reclaim position.

“This was, in general, a bit of an odd weekend in terms of grip,” said Verstappen with regard to the Portimão track. “We were not on top of it here but we will see what we can do in Barcelona [next weekend's Spanish GP].

“I had a good restart and I tried to put the pressure on Valtteri [Bottas] but at the end we lacked a little bit of pace overall, so Lewis got by again and after the pit stop the warm-up is super hard on these tyres.

“I think once we settled in second, you could clearly see that around here we were lacking in pace compared to them. But still, second, fastest lap in the last lap…”

Verstappen smiled in satisfaction at his success in sneaking a point for the fastest lap only to be informed his effort had been cancelled for exceeding track limits.

The fastest lap went to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in the end, which led to Verstappen responding by saying: “That’s a bit odd because they were not checking track limits at 14 but...whatever!”

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