Villeneuve criticises Verstappen: "He has thrown away the pole"

Jacques Villeneuve saw Max Verstappen impress on Saturday during the difficult circumstances during the Grand Prix weekend in Turkey. However, at the decisive moment, the 23-year-old Dutchman failed to take pole position and he is to blame, according to the Formula 1 analyst. Pole position would have been possible if Verstappen had been less 'aggressive' in the closing stages.

Villeneueve emphasises that Verstappen was two seconds faster than the competition at Istanbul Park. "So he could easily take pole," said the former world champion, who saw the Red Bull Racing driver switch to the intermediates at the wrong time. "That choice didn't work out well, which logically made him a little frustrated. He started to take a lot of risks then."

Verstappen threw P1 away

At the time, in the view of the Canadian critic, things went wrong for Verstappen. "He threw away the pole, because he was really much faster than the rest of the field," he says in front of Sky Italia's cameras.

Lance Stroll took the first pole position of his career. He praises the Racing Point driver, but according to Villeneuve that highlight is partly due to the underperformance of Verstappen. "Max wanted a little too much, he was a little too aggressive. Stroll was a bit calmer and turned out to be faster in the end. Stroll didn't make any mistakes and that's clever, but he does drive a Mercedes. That makes it easier."