Max Verstappen has accepted blame for his low-starting Miami Grand Prix starting position after he was forced to abort his first lap time attempt in Q3.
The session was red-flagged late on when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed following a high-speed spin, with Race Control opting to end the session with just over 90 seconds remaining on the clock.
Verstappen had abandoned his maiden effort after making a mistake and failed to log a time before the session prematurely ended.
The championship leader is set to start Sunday’s race from ninth on the grid, while team-mate Sergio Perez took the third pole position of his Formula 1 career.
“First of all, we didn’t do a lap and that was my fault,” Verstappen said. “It was extremely tricky.
“I was a little bit off line out of [Turn] six and into seven. I felt a bit of understeer and I just couldn’t get it back on the line.
“So I aborted my lap and then of course you need a bit of luck, hoping that there won’t be a red flag.
“Of course when you try to think like that, then it happens. It’s a bit upsetting. The whole weekend we have been pretty quick, my Q2 lap was fast enough for pole in Q3.
“I guess that says that we have a quick car but you need to put it together, and when it matters, we didn’t. That’s a bit frustrating from my part.”
Verstappen returned to the pit lane after his mistake, and admits that it was not completely necessary to do so.
“We could have in hindsight [went for a second attempt]. We could’ve also gone out a bit earlier, but you know, I made a mistake, you don’t plan on me making a mistake.
“Then you are like ‘OK, let’s go a little bit early so we might have a clean run’.
“I was still quite ahead of a few cars but then you also don’t anticipate that one car immediately goes off. But that’s a street circuit, these things happen.”
With Red Bull possessing the fastest car in the field, Verstappen has outlined that his expectation for the grand prix is a “minimum” result of second place.
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