Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen explains FP2 crash after setting early pace

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

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.