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Max Verstappen had one of the hardest races under the ground effect era during the recently concluded Bahrain GP. The Dutchman, who started from P7, ended his race in P6 and wrapped up a race that he termed as "difficult" after the race.
Fresh from his Japanese GP victory, Verstappen arrived in Bahrain with his eyes set on P1 in the Drivers' Championship. However, the Red Bull RB21 had other ideas, as the much-revered car (including its predecessors) handed out difficult times to the four-time world champion.
From brake, to balance issues, the RB21 failed to compete with the McLarens, Ferraris, and Mercedes. As a result, the defending champion struggled during the Free Practice sessions and qualified in P7 on Saturday.
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On Sunday, Verstappen started the race formidably but lost out immensely with two poor pit stops. The first one was 4.2 seconds, and the second pit stop was 6.7 seconds. Altogether, the Hasselt-born driver was stationary for nearly 11 seconds and came out at the back of the pack.
However, he managed to crawl back to P7 after the Safety Car and overtook Pierre Gasly right at the last moment to bring home an all-important eight points with P6. Following the race, he took to the team radio and shared his thoughts. He said as per F1TV:
"Yeah, that was at least positive, that last lap. Oh my God, that was difficult. Jesus."
Max Verstappen's teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, didn't have a good outing either, as the Japanese driver started the race from P10 only to come home in P9. Astonishingly, this was the first point finish for the second Red Bull car in four races, and a sprint.
Max Verstappen summed up his Bahrain GP: "Basically everything went wrong"
After an underwhelming outing in Bahrain, Max Verstappen summed up his race and stated that everything went wrong for him on that particular day. Here's what he said in detail:
"Basically everything went wrong! We had a poor start, too much wheelspin when I dropped the clutch, and then the first stint again [I had] basically the same problems that I had in Qualifying, plus we were just overheating our tires too much compared to the competition ahead of us."
“It’s of course not what we want, but it’s just where we are at with our car and the tire behavior that we have with the car. Everything is just highlighted even more on a track like this," he further added.
Currently, Max Verstappen is in the P3 of the Drivers' Championship with 69 points. He is trailing McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri by eight and five points, respectively.
