Verstappen reveals damage hampered Melbourne efforts

Max Verstappen revealed he had to drive the majority of the Australian Grand Prix with a damaged Red Bull. The Dutchman was pipped off the line by Kevin Magnussen before losing further places with a spin, leaving him to bring home a sixth-place finish.

After qualifying fourth on the grid, Verstappen suggested he had left a front-row spot on the track on Saturday and that would cost him as Sebastian Vettel took advantage of the Virtual Safety Car to sneak a victory from under the nose of Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen was happy with his getaway, but Vettel closing the door left him vulnerable to Magnussen sweeping around the outside, although the Haas would later retire.

In a battle with the similarly Renault-powered McLaren of Fernando Alonso, Verstappen could not find a way through, although he later revealed the reasons behind his car's struggles.

"After a decent first get away, a bit unlucky at turn one and got a bit caught out and lost a position," he told Sky Sports.

"Suddenly I had a lot of issues with the car, balance problems, we found out after four or five laps something broke off the car, and all the time in the middle of the corner was losing

Not the result we hoped for. From lap 1 on I had a lot of oversteer, which made my afternoon difficult on a circuit where overtaking is already hard. Not much more to say other than I will be back stronger in Bahrain #keeppushing #AusGP pic.twitter.com/1q0RlmE3d0 — Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) March 25, 2018

"It's not ideal but luckily with the 360 I didn't lose too many positions. After that you are in the hunt but you can't overtake on this track so it's a bit of a shame."

Verstappen again reflected on the error he reported after qualifying and says a more solid performance in Saturdays moving forward will help Red bull deliver on pre-season promise of mounting a title fight.

"With the circumstances we were in, the damage we had, we still scored some points.

"As soon as we were in clean air the pace was good. We don't need to worry, we just need to focus on getting a clean qualifying and then in the race everything should sort itself out."