seven tenths per lap. That was the toll to pay for max verstappen due to damages caused by your shock with George Russell at the start of the sprint race of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The incident happened in turn 2 of the circuit of baku, when the Dutch driver tried to pass Russell on the outside. The British did not give in and they ended up touchingwhich caused a hole to open in the side of the Red Bull.
In the next corner, Verstappen wanted to return the play trying to overtake him again from the outside, although he lost control of the car and ended up brushing the wall.
Despite the fact that visually the damage was very evident, the pace shown by Verstappen suggested that they did not have a significant impact on the performance of his RB19since he had no problem keeping up with charles leclerc.
However, the team leader Red Bull, Christian Horner, spoke about the incident and quantified the losses it caused in the speed of Verstappen’s car. “It’s difficult to calculate, but it had to be, when you see how the body turned out, at least seven tenths of a second per lap. Then there were other complications with the temperatures because the air did not pass through the side capsules,” Horner explained to ‘Sky Sports’.
This clash caused a heated discussion between Verstappen and Russell at the end of the race. The head of Red Bull attributes the world champion’s reaction to his strong temperament and assures that he will not forget the incident.
“I think he was understandably upset with that. He expressed his opinion to George. It was probably a good idea for him to keep his helmet on. You can understand that, he is a competitive driver. He is like an elephant will remember it for a while“Horner said.
