Verstappen had a damaged car after crashing the bollard, according to Christian Horner.
After the exit of the safety car, Max Verstappen fell behind Lando Norris, who then gradually passed him. According to Red Bull, damage to the car was to blame. It happened when Verstappen hit the bollard. It wasn’t the bollard as such, he picked up the front wing, but the protruding part that the bollard was anchored to the track. Verstappen’s car bounced on the curb and then landed directly on this overhang.
After the race, Verstappen blamed the slower pace compared to the McLaren on tires and poor balance, but was unaware of the damage during media interviews, according to the team.
“We had a bad balance all weekend,” said Horner, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “Around the 20th lap he hit a bollard, which really damaged the bottom of the car quite a bit. We’ll have to see exactly what effect that had.’
“That’s a pretty decent chunk of area around a cheap rear floor. It’s missing quite a bit and you can see that it’s also flexing terribly, so it certainly didn’t help.’
Horner explained that the data showed that Verstappen was significantly underpowered in the first corner, which would match the advantage that Norris had.
“He was losing two and a half tenths in the first corner of every lap,” Horner said. “Considering the damage, I think second place was actually still a pretty decent result.”
“I didn’t like it, so I decided to take it off and test the resistance of the front wing,” Verstappen commented on the bollard knock. “The crash test is over. The cone was gone for everyone, so then it was basically a free ride.”
