F1 Azerbaijan GP: Max Verstappen brushes off sidepod HOLE in dominant RB-19 to take P3 in Baku sprint

Despite the fact that he was racing with a sidepod hole Max Verstappen drove the dominant RB-19 to a P3 finish - and kept in touch with Charles Leclerc.

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Max Verstappen brushes off sidepod HOLE in dominant RB-19 to take P3 in Baku sprint

Max Verstappen during the Azerbaijan GP sprint with the sidepod hole

As expected, the Azerbaijan GP weekend continued in the same vein during the sprint – absolute chaos. It all went down on the first lap, with one very notable incident in particular, involving Max Verstappen and George Russell. The two tussled going into the first corner and then made contact on turn 2. Russell somewhat squeezed Verstappen, hitting his sidepod in the process, and dropping debris on the track.

To say that the Dutchman was not happy about this incident would be an understatement. He continued complaining about it throughout the safety car period that followed Yuki Tsunoda’s incident, with his tire flying off. After making contact with Russell, the two-time world champion said over the radio: “He tapped me!” and added: “I can also pass him if I keep tapping into the side [of the car].”

https://youtu.be/Cn6xfQWv1C0

When informed by his engineer that he had picked up some floor damage, Verstappen asked: “How?” and Gianpiero Lambiase replied: “How do you think?” To this, the Dutchman said: “Did he [go] right into the side? I don’t understand how he can keep the position, and he’s [also] damaging my car. It’s ridiculous.” After he overtook Russell on the race restart, Lambiase said: “Lovely job, Max. Without contact as well.”

FS Video

But this incident gave another example of Red Bull’s dominance. Even with a large hole in his sidepod, Verstappen was able to keep touch with Charles Leclerc in the latter stages of the race, even though he could not attempt a true overtaking move. That probably had something to do with the damage. And not only that, but he pulled a gap of more than 3.5 seconds on Russell, and it was closer to 4 seconds for most of the sprint!

Read More: F1 Azerbaijan GP: “Fast and Furious,” Sergio Perez sarcastically hails Baku Sprint Shootout

Max Verstappen: George Russell’s explanation for incident “doesn’t make sense”

Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen

It’s been glaringly obvious just how good the Red Bull RB-19 is. Having won all of the first three races, both Red Bull drivers are in a strong position to win tomorrow’s race. This is despite the fact that Charles Leclerc took pole, both for the feature and the sprint race, by considerable margins. After he was overtaken by Sergio Perez, he was able to keep pace for a bit, before falling off drastically. Max Verstappen experienced a similar pace drop off – but he also had damage.

It’s hard to say just how much performance he lost with that sidepod hole and the possible floor damage. It’s possible that, without it, he would have been troubling Perez for the win. When asked in the post-race interview, if the incident had been clarified during his ‘discussion’ with George Russell, Verstappen denied it. He said: “No, it’s not [been] clarified. I just don’t understand why you need to take so much risk on lap 1, understeer into my sidepod [and] create a hole.”

The Dutchman continued: “We all have cold tires, you know, it’s always easy to lock up. His beautiful of explaining ‘Ah, mate, you know, I locked up, look at the onboard’ It doesn’t make sense, but it’s fine. We still got into P3, got some good points, but it is what it is.” Asked if there was any damage from the incident, he said: “There was a hole in the sidepod. It doesn’t look that great, but it is what it is now, and we’ll focus on tomorrow.”

Despite the disappointing result in the sprint, he’s still one of the favorites for the win tomorrow. Part of the reason is the RB-19 – which as you probably can tell, is very fast, especially under DRS. The other part? He’s Max Verstappen, and he usually has his teammate’s measure. It’s hard to see Leclerc troubling the championship’s top 2 tomorrow, so a teammate battle between the Red Bull pairing looks to be in store.

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