Max Verstappen believes a damp patch on the circuit was to blame for his crash in second practice for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Toro Rosso rookie had set the fastest time in FP1 on Friday but his afternoon session lasted just four minutes before he hit the wall on the outside of the penultimate corner. Verstappen says he was not even on a quick lap and feels he was heavily punished for a small error due to the corner having no run-off.
“Well I was basically still warming up my tyres to prepare for a push lap and I went into the last turn pretty normal but suddenly I lost the rear a little bit," Verstappen said. "It’s very hard on the tarmac to see where is still damp or where is dry, probably maybe I hit a damp spot and lost the rear a little bit and then I was a bit unlucky with the run-off of course, because it wasn’t a hard hit.”
While Verstappen set the pace in first practice his quickest lap came when he ran off track in the Esses. However, he insists he still would have been quickest overall due to the lap time he set on his next lap.
“It was very good. We had good running on the track, learning the track and at the end I think we did some very good laps in a row. The car was feeling great and I was a bit surprised of course to come out on top. I was very happy with the car in general.
“My first lap I went off but then my second lap was only one tenth slower. It still would have put me first, as I was three tenths clear.”
AS IT HAPPENED: Mexican Grand Prix FP2
Eric Silbermann's Mexican grumpy preview
Technical analysis: United States
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