Were Verstappen's problems not too bad? 'He still picked up fastest lap'

Red Bull Racing was once again the dominant team on the track in Saudi Arabia, and Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez only seemed to face opposition from each other and from the RB19. Team consultant Dr Helmut Marko nuanced the Dutchman's problems during the race.

It was in the latter stages of the race that Verstappen again felt vibrations at the rear of his RB19. The Dutchman reported the problems over the board radio to his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. There seems to be no explanation for the vibrations as yet. What is clear, however, is that even the exceptionally fast Red Bull is not exempt from reliability problems this season.

Marko nuances problems RB19 Verstappen

Verstappen started the race from P15 on Sunday, having broken his drive shaft during qualifying on Saturday in Q2 and was unable to continue with the session. Gears also proved to be an occasional pain point in Bahrain and during preparations in Jeddah. At the end of the race, things on board Verstappen did not feel right either. Marko told Sky Sports about this: "We still need to check where those vibrations are really coming from."

However, the Austrian does not seem concerned about the vibrations aboard the RB19 and nuanced the picture. Marko: " If you can then do the fastest lap, in the end, maybe it wasn't such an acute problem after all. But of course, we do thoroughly investigate any problem that arises." Verstappen still managed to brace himself during or after the problems and grab the fastest lap on the final lap.