Max Verstappen reflects on on-track battle with guy he replaced
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen insists that he didn't have a problem with having to fight his way past Toro Rosso's Dany Kvyat in Singapore, and adds that the Russian should not have been subject to any orders from his team.
Kvyat put up a robust defense when the man who took his RBR drive arrived in his mirrors, although Verstappen eventually did get by,.
"I should get past by myself," said Verstappen. "He was fighting for his position. You should fight the same [way] against everyone and I think he was doing that. It's fair.
"It was getting quite intense at one point, going a bit off the track. We were just losing a lot of time and, of course, after such a bad start you are a bit disappointed. He was a bit aggressive. On the one hand I understand it, on the other hand you have to let each other live a bit. If you look at the fight with Alonso and with Perez, then it's a very different fight."
Verstappen was coming through the field because he'd made a bad start and then had to back off when Nico Hulkenberg spun across in front of him.
"Before the start the team already said the start wouldn't be ideal because clutch wasn't working properly. Last night they discovered that the clutch wouldn't bite well, but they weren't allowed to change anything by the FIA because it wasn't a structural problem and I was able to race with it.
"I dropped the clutch and just had a lot of wheelspin and then there's nothing you can do. That's the worst thing that can happen apart from going into anti-stall. I knew it was going to be a difficult start, but I didn't expect it to be that bad.
"Then I had Nico [Hulkenberg] in front of me, so I had to brake and lose even more momentum. It was maybe not as bad as in Monza, but still very bad. At least at Monza it's easier to overtake. Here it is pretty much game over."
Verstappen eventually recovered to a respectable sixth place.
"The race was already compromised at the start and from there on you get stuck behind the slower cars in front of you, and it's very hard to overtake. In the beginning, when the cars are very heavy, as soon as you get stuck behind other cars for two or three laps you just destroy the tires and lose your advantage. That made it very difficult. Then you need to pit earlier, so your whole strategy gets compromised. As soon as I was in clear it was fine and I could manage my tires but unfortunately I didn't have that many free laps.
"For sure we'll try to do better. First we need to focus on getting the start under control. Now it's been three times in a row. It's very disappointing. I'm going to sleep well tonight and then prepare for the next race. We will definitely have to talk about this, because this can't happen three times in a row. We could have been fighting for the podium here, so it's very bitter of course."
