Verstappen regrets lack of pace after eventful Mexico City F1 race

After an eventful race at the Mexico City Grand Prix, championship leader Max Verstappen insists the real problem was that his RB20 lacked race pace during the 71-lap race, leaving him vulnerable to direct rivals.

Reigning champion Max Verstappen put in a strong performance at the Mexico City Grand Prix as he secured second place in qualifying. The Dutchman made a great start, passing Carlos Sainz at the first corner.

However, the Spaniard used his SF-24’s impressive top speed to overtake Verstappen at Turn 1 to retake the lead. After losing to the Ferrari driver, he received two separate time penalties while fighting on the same lap as his championship rival Lando Norris.

This meant he was immobilized for a total of 20 seconds during his single pit stop, which dropped him down the rankings. Although he rose to sixth place, Norris closed the points gap between the pilots by 10 points.

Verstappen began: “It was a difficult weekend. The start was good but then we ran out of speed and struggled for the rest of the race on both compounds. We had a long pitstop due to penalties and after that it was a recovery effort to collect as many points as possible.”

“It is. We need to understand what went wrong this weekend, but there wasn’t much we could do today. There are a lot of things we want to do better and we will have to work hard to get back.” It’s stronger in Brazil.”

Sergio Perez made a great start and moved up the rankings. However, the Mexican pilot received a five-second penalty for not getting the grid box correctly.

He was on track to challenge for points despite the penalty, but a wheel-to-wheel challenge with Liam Lawson saw Perez suffer serious damage to the floor and sidepod of his RB20.

“Today was a very difficult day, we were recovering well in the race, we had a really good start and although unfortunately we had a time penalty I think we made progress and will get good points.”

“Then I had the incident with Liam, it was the first hard tyre, and we were a lot quicker, we aimed on the inside, we took the corner and I didn’t expect him to be there, I had position in turn five. “He had left the track, he came back on track and I didn’t expect him to go straight.

“He took the whole side of the car off, damaged my sidepod and floor. I really don’t understand this, it was completely avoidable, he went after it and it ruined both of our races. I’m very angry. Looking at how this weekend went, I’m very sorry for my Team and my people, “This was the worst GP I’ve ever had at home.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted the Milton Keynes-based team once again lacked race pace at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and surprised the team after a strong performance in qualifying.

“It wasn’t the race we were hoping for. Penalties and damage really affected our race. Pace was an issue for us today and that’s something we really need to look at and understand where we lost in the race.

“We had good pace yesterday, but today we were lacking, so we’ll have to do a lot of hard work between now and Brazil. Checo’s race really suffered, which is a big shame for his own race.”

“He sustained serious damage early on and that, combined with the penalty, actually meant that his race was cancelled,” Horner concluded.