Brakes on fire, Verstappen's black day: “Difficult to digest”

It's the law of large numbers. Very great, in this case: Max Verstappen came from 43 points-scoring races, close to Lewis Hamilton's record (48), from 9 consecutive victories (19 in the last 20 races), from 18 successes in a row starting from pole. Enough to philosophically take the first retirement in two years (Australia 2022), yet as soon as he got out of his Red Bull, parked in the pits at the end of the third lap due to a brake problem, the three-time world champion did not he knew how to mask his disappointment. By scrutinizing his lips, while he was discussing with the technicians before being confessed by team principal Christian Horner at the wall, the adjective “stupid” was glimpsed. He was smoking with anger, Super Max, as his right rear brake had just gone up in smoke and with it the incredible series of results lined up between the second half of 2023 and the start of this season.

But what happened to the seemingly indestructible RB20? Due to a problem, the brake locked up and essentially remained active all the time, creating friction and ultimately fatal overheating. «The car has become very difficult to drive – said Verstappen, overtaken on the second lap by Carlos Sainz after starting from pole -, this is a sport in which mechanics count. It was like having some sort of active handbrake. It's never good to retire, it's difficult to digest, but we know it can happen.” Verstappen remains leader of the World Championship, even if the advantage has been reduced to just 4 points over Charles Leclerc, second and author of the fastest lap. «It's a shame – concludes the Dutch phenomenon -, at the beginning and during the formation lap everything seemed to be going well and I think we had a good pace for the race».