Verstappen rues Red Bull strategy call after agonising Austrian GP defeat

The Red Bull Racing driver had put in an impressive recovery drive at the Spielberg event, particularly off the back of the nightmare ending to his qualifying. Verstappen was quick to gain positions on the drivers around him and, in little time, was on the gearbox of Lewis Hamilton in a fight for second place.

After dispatching the Scuderia Ferrari driver, the race became one of attrition and strategy with George Russell, who was leading for Mercedes. While Verstappen clawed back lap time on the British driver, the Mercedes team were quick to pull an undercut, pitting Russell first with 28 laps remaining. Red Bull, on their end, opted to extend Verstappen's stint before he pitted with 22 laps to go, with the hope of having a tyre advantage for the final stint.

The Red Bull driver would come out 11 seconds behind Russell following their final stops but ultimately finished 1.6 seconds behind the Briton.

When quizzed about whether the team strategy had denied him what could possibly have been a race victory, the four-time champion noted: "It's easy now to look back at it. I do think I had the deg over George, but I also knew that it was going to be a very long stint to the end. But we'll look at it again."

Amid the relatively questionable strategy of the Red Bull outfit in Austria, Verstappen also had to deal with some niggling issues during the Grand Prix. After the race, the Dutch driver spoke more about these problems and indicated that, without them, he might well have achieved a better result than P2.

In a conversation with Viaplay, he went into more detail about these problems: "I had brake issues the entire race and, for half the race, problems with the rear of the car. At a certain point, it just stopped complying. That just costs time," said the Red Bull Racing driver.

The four-time champion also noted that he felt a stronger result was possible without the issues. "Maybe, yes. It definitely didn't feel good anymore," Verstappen stated.

The Dutchman admitted that driving 71 laps with problems was very tough. "You don't have traction anymore. It bounces a lot. You simply can't go over the kerbs properly, and it just doesn't rebound," he concluded.