Red Bull has confirmed that Max Verstappen suffered damage to the floor of his RB14 early in the Australian Grand Prix.
The damage not only compromised his pace and ability to challenge the cars ahead of him, they also contributed to the costly spin he suffered on lap 10.
Verstappen's problems began in the first corner. His attempt to pass the two Ferraris ahead of him was blocked by Sebastian Vettel, which allowed Haas' Kevin Magnussen to get by him instead.
“The start was okay," said the 20-year-old. "But I got a bit unfortunate at turn one and ended up in the wrong position so lost out on fourth.
"I tried to follow as best I could, but experienced a few issues with the feeling of the car.
"I think at about lap four or five I sustained a bit of damage on the car," he suggested. "I’m not sure what from as I didn’t have any contact or hit any kerbs hard.
"When I jumped out of the car [at the end of the race] I could see some damage," he revealed. "I also think something broke off, so we need to investigate what that was.
"The issue made it hard to hold on mid corner, which eventually led to me spinning and then struggling for the rest of the race," he said. "Luckily I didn’t lose too many positions due to the spin.
"The car has been running and feeling really good all weekend so it’s a shame to have the damage and then the bad feeling during the race."
"Max’s afternoon was a frustrating one for him," added team principal Christian Horner. "He made a good start initially but then got boxed in on the right hand side and dropped a place to the Haas.
"He picked up some damage to the floor on lap four or five that compromised the performance of his car quite significantly."
After dropping down as far as 13th place after the pit stop, Verstappen kept plugging away and was rewarded with sixth by the finish.
"We are happy to score some points considering the circumstances," Verstappen said.
Much of the final stint was spent behind Fernando Alonso. Try as he might, Verstappen couldn't get past the McLaren to pick up a further place.
"[I] managed to have a battle to the end," he said. "It is still really hard to get past the cars ahead as soon as you are within a second. This track is hard to overtake also, but when you have limited grip it is extra hard.
"As soon as we had clean air the pace was good," he pointed out, saying that the signs were good for upcoming races.
"If we can have a good qualifying and clean start then everything else should sort itself out in the race and we can be competitive."
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