Max Verstappen reacts to ‘very frustrating’ Singapore Grand Prix mistakes

Max Verstappen says he can’t wait to get on a plane out of Singapore after a difficult weekend at the Marina Bay street circuit.

The Red Bull driver came into the grand prix with a chance to seal his second Formula 1 title.

But that job was made very difficult on Saturday after he could only qualify eighth on the grid after his team made a bizarre error by not putting enough fuel in his car which forced Verstappen to abandon his final flying lap.

However, after coming back from lowly positions to win in Hungary, Belgium and Italy, there was still great hope of a victory under the lights in Singapore for the Dutchman, but from the off that prospect became increasingly unlikely.

A poor start saw him drop down the order and the wet and treacherous conditions meant that progress up the grid was slow.

A late safety car renewed hope of a podium finish, but on the restart Verstappen’s attempted an overtake on Lando Norris went badly wrong as he went off track and was forced to pit again for fresh tyres.

This dropped him to the back of the pack, yet he recovered well to claim seventh place after late overtakes on Sir Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>A BIG lock up for Max Verstappen! ð± pic.twitter.com/A1vN8YB4NT

‘At the start I dropped the clutch and went into anti-stall, so I need to analyse why that happened but of course you lose a lot of spots,’ Verstappen said post-race.

‘From there onwards I tried to pass a few people, some worked but then you get stuck in a little bit of a train. Everyone managed to get their tyres up to temperature and so it’s really hard to follow.

‘Of course we were a bit lucky at times, some people had a few mistakes. I tried to pass Lando for fourth but then I bottomed