Verstappen points out a serious problem at Red Bull: "That was terrible"

Verstappen managed to stay out of trouble at the start and was able to begin his charge through the midfield soon after. “I stayed out of trouble in the beginning, and then drove by the midfield," Verstappen said after the race to GPblog.

Even so, he encountered a problem with his car early on. According to the Dutchman, he had almost no power at the start because the battery was empty. “Terrible, I had no battery. Somehow on the formation lap, it drained all the battery."

That meant the four-time world champion had virtually no power when the lights went out. "I have no idea. I launched, and I had zero battery, so no power basically." Still, Verstappen managed to make up a few places on the opening lap. “After a few corners, but at the start, I think I was last."

Later in the race, Verstappen found some rhythm, but another issue hampered him: the tyres. According to the Red Bull driver, the hard compound in particular was disappointing. “At one point got into a bit of a rhythm, but I think it was quite clear that we had a lot of degradation and a lot of graining on the hard compound, which we thought was going to be better, but unfortunately, it looked like the medium was the better tyre today."

Despite the problems, Verstappen ultimately fought back to sixth place, limiting the damage after his crash in qualifying, which forced him to start the race from twentieth.

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