After the pole achieved on Saturday, Max Verstappen hoped to be fighting for victory, thus achieving his tenth consecutive success between the end of the last world championship and the beginning of this championship.
Instead, that streak stopped at nine victories, as the Dutchman was forced to retire after just a few laps due to a problem with his right rear brake. The brake, in fact, remained substantially active, creating friction and this, in the long run, led to overheating which put an end to his race.
After maintaining the lead of the race, precisely because of that problem Verstappen had come wide into turn three, giving Sainz the chance to attack him during the second lap by taking advantage of the DRS on the sprint leading to turn ten.
Max Verstappen's retirement, Red Bull RB20
In the following moments, Verstappen tried to understand how to manage the problem, the situation quickly degenerated, until we started to see smoke coming out of the right rear area, with the brakes on fire. His race thus lasted only a few laps, as he was forced to return to the pits with a car that was impossible to drive and was now damaged in that area by the flames that had spread due to the high temperatures.
“There was an overheating problem with the brakes, it got stuck and that caused it to overheat. It was like having some sort of active handbrake. The car became very difficult to drive, it was a shame, because at the beginning I felt good, on the formation lap everything seemed to be going well, I think we had a good pace for the race, but then it went like this,” he explained Verstappen during interviews.
“It's never good to retire, because with the rear brake locked, it was like it was always on, and that caused the problem. It's a mechanical problem, we know it can happen and it has happened.”
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