Max Verstappen has admitted it was his own “misunderstanding” that caused him to pit during the United States Grand Prix when his Red Bull crew were not ready for him.
The Dutch driver arrived to his pit box on lap 26 just as his team were emerging from the garage, having been taken by surprise.
Verstappen had been running in fourth place before his unscheduled stop to replace his soft tyres for mediums.
He lost a considerable amount of time with the pit error but his Red Bull ground to a halt a few laps later with a gearbox issue.
“It was a very unfortunate way to end the race, especially as the first part was so positive,” he said.
“The start was OK, being on the harder compound means it is always going to be tricky but we managed to get away and stay in front of Seb [Vettel].
“I was happy with the pace and I felt good out there, it was a nice battle with Kimi [Raikkonen] who I was glad to pass.
“I’m sure there was the ability to race the Mercedes but it is just very hard to pass them due to the straight line speed. I backed off Nico [Rosberg] in the end to save my tyres and maintain the gap from the Ferrari.
“The pit stop issue was my misunderstanding, the team had asked me to push the lap before so I thought I was going to be coming in. I pitted and then realised they hadn’t actually made the call, luckily it didn’t affect the end result.
“Shortly after I had come back on track I heard a banging noise coming from the engine so I pulled the clutch, they then asked me to release it again and keep going so they could try and work out what it was, unfortunately we couldn’t solve it and it ended my race.
“At the end of the day the race pace was good and the setup felt strong so I am positive and looking forward to Mexico next week.”
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