Max Verstappen looked set to capitalise on Lewis Hamilton's mounting misfortunes heading into Saturday's crucial sprint qualifying race for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.
With Hamilton excluded from the results of the previous day's qualifying session for a DRS-related technical infringement, Verstappen picked up P1 on the grid for the start of the sprint that decided the starting order for the Grand Prix.
But the decision to run the 24-lap sprint on medium tyres cost Verstappen when a poor start saw him drop two positions to Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz on the opening lap.
Both Bottas and Sainz benefitted from starting on the faster but less durable soft tyres. While Verstappen was soon able to re-pass Sainz for second, he was unable to get back around Bottas to reclaim the lead before the chequered flag.
"The start itself wasn't the best," he admitted. "But also of course [we were] on the harder compound, so that also didn't help ... Especially to put the energy in [to the tyres] around here, it wasn't the easiest.
"Also I think the track [temperature] dropped a bit more than we would have liked," he suggested. "Besides that I somehow lost all the gear sync so my start was already not as amazing on these tyres.
"When we upshifted, we had a terrible shift. All in all, that didn’t work out for me," he sighed. “Then, of course, I dropped to third on the first lap but after that I think the pace was fine."
Even though he missed out on a sprint win and pole position for Sunday's race, Verstappen still picks up two points for today's result which eases him further clear of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers championship.
But Hamilton also had a good race despite having to start from the back row, pulling off 15 passes during the half hour sprint to finish in fifth and keep his hopes alive for tomorrow despite a five place engine change grid drop.
Verstappen admitted that he hadn't found it as easy to pass as Hamilton had done among the backmarkers but he remains optimistic for the race.
"The pace was quite good [but] once you close up here you can't really pass," he said, acknowledging that this would make it hard tomorrow when he starts behind Bottas on the front row.
"You can’t overtake around here; the tyres very quickly overheat and then you’re stuck. Especially when the cars are closely matched on pace, there’s not much you can do in the Sprint without a pitstop so I just sat behind, basically.
"When you are behind, your tyres are even warmer because you’re trying to get closer to get the DRS. It didn’t really look like it was a concern for Valtteri in terms of how close I was.
"They're fast on the straights," he said of his Mercedes rivals. "So you need a really good last corner to be able to pass. Today it wasn't possible, but we'll try again tomorrow."
Hamilton wasn't the only driver to have his knuckles rapped by the stewards today, with Verstappen himself given a €50,000 fine to pay for getting too close to the Mercedes in parc ferme on Friday.
“It’s quite a big fine,” he admitted. "I hope they have a nice dinner and a lot of wine! I hope good, expensive wine, that would be nice. They can invite me for dinner as well – I’ll pay for that dinner too.
“I do have to pay," he said. "That's a bit less FIFA points for me on my laptop then!”
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