Max Verstappen regretted hitting debris on the track shortly after taking the lead in the British GP
Max Verstappen took the lead of the British GP on Sunday (3) twice, but ended up being out of the running after 12 laps at Silverstone. According to the championship leader, it was bad luck. Even so, he stayed in the race and still managed to profit with a seventh place that preserved six points.
The reigning F1 champion said he hit the piece of car right after passing Carlos Sainz to take the lead. Earlier, at the start, he had passed the Spaniard, but the maneuver was cancelled out by the red flag caused by the heavy accident involving Guanyu Zhou.
After that, he lost performance and ended up fighting to stay in the points zone.
"A critical problem means that the car can no longer drive. I took the lead after Carlos' getaway, and a few corners later I hit a piece of car on the main racing line. I couldn't turn completely to either side. You can't do that just by force," he said.
"I tried to face it head on. Normally this kind of thing explodes or ends up being blown out of the car, but this time it got stuck in the floorboard and destroyed the whole left side," he said.
"The car was tearing apart in the corners. Still being able to finish seventh with the car in these conditions was good," he finished.
The 2022 Formula One season returns next week in Spielberg for the Austrian GP on July 8-10.