Max Verstappen reckons damage he sustained to his Red Bull RB14 led to his spin during the early stages of the Australian Grand Prix.
Verstappen challenged the Ferrari drivers on the approach to Turn 1 as he attempted to move up from fourth, but was boxed in, and fell behind Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Verstappen hounded Magnussen but spun through Turn 1 a few laps later, completing a full 360 as he dropped from fifth to eighth, falling behind Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.
Verstappen moved forward when both Haas drivers exited, but while he jumped Hulkenberg through the VSC phase, he dropped behind Fernando Alonso, where he remained until the chequered flag.
“I tried to follow [Kevin] as best I could but experienced a few issues with the feeling of the car,” he said after taking sixth.
“I think at about lap four or five I sustained a bit of damage on the car, I’m not sure what from as I didn’t have any contact or hit any kerbs hard.
“When I jumped out of the car I could see some damage and I also think something broke off so we need to investigate what that was.
“The issue made it hard to hold on mid-corner which eventually led to me spinning and then struggling for the rest of the race.
“Luckily I didn’t lose too many positions due to the spin and still managed to have a battle to the end.
“It is still really hard to get past the cars ahead as soon as you are within a second. This track is hard to overtake also but when you have limited grip it is extra hard.
“The car has been running and feeling really good all weekend so it’s a shame to have the damage and then the bad feeling during the race.”
Verstappen was nonetheless buoyed by the pace Red Bull was able to display.
“We are happy to score some points considering the circumstances, as soon as we had clean air the pace was good,” he said.
“Looking ahead I think if we can have a good qualifying and clean start then everything else should sort itself out in the race and we can be competitive.”
