Verstappen reveals what he did immediately after his major crash at Zandvoort

Verstappen’s latest Dutch GP was over early. The four-time world champion started from seventh, but lost control of his Red Bull exiting the Arie Luyendyk corner and crashed heavily, which prompted many concerned reactions from his Formula 1 colleagues. After stepping out of the car, Verstappen returned to the paddock and sought some peace and quiet at Red Bull.

He only appeared in front of Viaplay’s camera after the Grand Prix. There, Verstappen was asked why he hadn’t been seen for a while after his crash. “Yeah, I just wanted to watch the race for a bit. So I took some time for that,” he explains. The impact itself had no physical consequences for Verstappen. When asked if he was feeling anything after the accident, he replied briefly: “No.”

Verstappen then also discussed what went wrong coming out of the final corner. According to him, the asphalt was still too slippery there and the reaction of his RB22 caught him by surprise.

“I think it was too slippery. Somehow the car snapped and I couldn’t catch it. It snapped at a weird moment for me. Then I couldn’t catch it anymore,” Verstappen says. Although he describes the moment itself as strange, Verstappen doesn’t point to the conditions as an excuse. “In the end it’s simply my mistake that I went off there. It was a weird moment.”

The crash meant his last Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort ended much earlier than hoped. Still, Verstappen’s biggest frustration isn’t the retirement itself. Red Bull lacked pace throughout the entire weekend, and that’s what he’s more upset about.

“Yeah, of course it’s a real shame, but the main thing is that we simply had no pace the whole weekend, and I find that much more frustrating,” he explains. “Of course it’s a pity to retire, but I would have preferred to be fighting at the front. Naturally I would have liked to have a better final race here, but overall there were many positive and beautiful moments,” he briefly reflects on his experiences at the circuit.