Verstappen blames anti-stall for poor Singapore GP start

The Red Bull driver fell from eighth on the grid to 12th by Turn 1 after his car almost went into anti-stall mode.

He fought back through the pack but spun while attempting a pass on Lando Norris on lap 40, forcing him to pit again and returning to the track in 13th.

Verstappen eventually finished one place higher than he started, but said it is “not where we want to be.”

He also said his torrid Sunday was partly down to his struggles in qualifying, which saw him forced to abort what could have been a pole lap as he was running low on fuel.

Verstappen said: “Yeah, I dropped the clutch and hit anti-stall, so I need to analyse why that happened, but of course you lose a lot of spots.

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

“Then of course we were a bit lucky, some people had a few mistakes.

“We were in fifth, tried to go for fourth to pass Lando and as soon as I got alongside him I braked, not even late, but I bottomed out because I was struggling already a lot there with bottoming and being offline it was probably even more bumpy.

“So as soon as I braked, the front wheels jumped into the air, and that was it, I just went straight on.

“I had to box again because of the massive vibrations, put new tyres on and come from last back into the points.

“It’s not where we want to be, but it already of course starts from yesterday, you put yourself in a spot like that and it can either work brilliantly, you can drive back to the front, or it’s very frustrating, like we had.”

Asked whether passing Sebastian Vettel for seventh on the last lap was any consolation, Verstappen added: “Better than eighth, but it’s not what I’m here for, not with a car like that, what we showed in practice, it’s just incredibly messy.”