Max Verstappen is not convinced the decision to start the Brazilian Grand Prix on the medium tyre compound cost him a chance to win the race.
The Red Bull driver was the only one of the front-runners to start the race on the medium compound. The others around him, including team mate Sergio Perez, opted for the softs.
Verstappen kept his second place at the start and soon took the lead off surprise pole-winner Kevin Magnussen. However he came under attack from George Russell, who passed him to take the win.
Carlos Sainz Jnr then also passed the Red Bull driver, leaving him with front wing damage as he did. Lewis Hamilton pounced on Verstappen too, leaving him in fourth place at the flag.
Verstappen said the medium tyre compound hadn’t worked as well as expected but didn’t believe the soft tyre would have been any better for him.
“At the time I felt alright but somehow it didn’t work,” he told Sky. “But I think even on the soft tyre I was going to be too slow.
“We’re clearly just having way too much degradation here today. We’ll analyse it. I’m not sure we can do a lot for tomorrow, but I mean, it can’t be worse than today’s.”
The Red Bull driver will start tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix from third on the grid after Sainz’s grid penalty. However he remains concerned about his car’s performance over a stint.
“We’ll look at it tonight [but] at the end of the day, when you have so much more degradation than another team it doesn’t matter what you put on. So I think we just need to try and improve that first. Normally every tyre should work.”
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2022 Brazilian Grand Prix
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