Marko held heart on Verstappen: 'He didn't touch the wall, he crashed'

In qualifying for the British Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen secured pole position, the two-time world champion had a moment. On exiting the garage, he had oversteer, hitting the wall in the pit lane. Helmut Marko thinks that moment could have been a lot worse than it ended up being.

Marko on Verstappen crash

Verstappen referred to the moment as a "minor incident", but according to Marko, there was something more going on. "It started with a cable getting stuck, then he pulled off half the board computer," the Austrian told ORF.

"Then he crashed into the wall. It wasn't a light touch, it was a crash. He said it was extremely slippery. Thank God there was time to put a new wing on it," he adds. In the end, the incident did not keep Verstappen from a convincing pole position.

Sergio Perez, on the other hand, was less lucky. "We wanted him out as soon as possible because there was still a chance of rain. The fact that it then took so long to reheat the tyres was not taken into account. That was one of the reasons why he didn't reach his optimum on that lap," Marko said.