Verstapen searches for a reason behind spin: "I just clipped a little damp patch"

Max Verstappen caused a red flag stoppage during the morning session of F1 winter testing in Barcelona on Thursday. The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver was beached in the gravel after losing control of the car. Despite recording fewer laps than last week, Verstappen says the team are still on track with development processes. 

"It was a bit of a shame with the weather, so we couldn't really run as much as we wanted, but overall it was positive. We spent time driving with the aero rakes, gathering all the data we could and everything went well. Every day we are improving, learning more, and that's exactly what you want from testing," Verstappen said. 

"It was never the target to run as many laps as last week. I think we have done our long runs and now it's about checking parts and trying different things. It all takes time and the end result is fewer laps, but I think we tried everything we wanted to today."

Overall on day five, Red Bull Racing recorded the sixth-fastest time of the day, while Alex Albon only managed to set the 10th quickest time. Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the day on the C5 tyres, the softest of Pirelli's range. Verstappen was only 0.900 behind on slower tyres. 

The spin

Not for the first time this pre-season, Verstappen went spinning off the track. He tries to explain what caused the problem. 

"Regarding the spin, I had this morning, I had a look back at the footage and I just clipped a little damp patch, which I didn't see, but yeah, I think I just tried to take a little too much road on the entry," Verstappen added.