Verstappen blames tyre degradation for missing out in Austria

Red Bull's Max Verstappen said that tyre degradation had been the root cause of his struggles in today's Austrian Grand Prix, which meant he lost out on a chance of victory to Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen had topped qualifying and Saturday's sprint race to start on pole position on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, and initially seemed to have the upper hand as he rebuffed an attack from Leclerc at the start.

He then pulled away and seemed safely out of DRS range, but Leclerc had been managing his first set of medium tyres over the opening laps and was able to reel him in and pass him on lap 12.

• Read also: Leclerc too fast for Verstappen as Sainz blows up in Austria

Verstappen subsequently pitted for the hard compound early while Leclerc and his team mate Carlos Sainz ran long first stints. When they did pit, Verstappen was back in the lead - but only for five laps before Leclerc once again caught and passed him.

The same thing happened again with their staggered second stops, and each time Leclerc was able to drive around Verstappen. Only in the closing laps when the Ferrari developed a sticking throttle did Verstappen have the upper hand with both back on mediums - but by then it was too late.

“It was a tricky day,” Verstappen admitted in the post-race interviews in parc ferme. “Immediately it seemed like we were struggling quite a bit with the tyres, and basically that continued on every single compound.

“Too much degradation to really attack Charles especially," he explained. "But nevertheless, second place is still a good result for us on a difficult day."

He added that his major regret was not being able to deliver a victory for the legions of Dutch 'Orange Army' fans that had packed out the venue this weekend.

"It is great to see so many fans coming here to Austria," he said. "Unfortunately I couldn't give them a win today but second place is still a good result."

Verstappen's team mate Sergio Perez was not so fortunate, clashing with Mercedes' George Russell on the opening lap sending him spinning into the gravel at turn 4.

Although Perez was able to get back underway, the damaged to his car with a cracked sidepod resulted in retirement on lap 25.

With Carlos Sainz also failing to finish with an engine blow-up, today's result has only a minor effect on the drivers championship situation. Verstappen is on 208 points, 38 points ahead of Leclerc who cut the deficit by just five points this weekend while passing perez for second place.

In the constructors standings, Ferrari pull back seven points on Red Bull but the overall gap between them remains a formidable 56 points after completing 11 of this year's 22 rounds.

"Very important points today," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "Over the two races we have only given away five points with Max so it is not too bad.

"Our pace at the end of the race - we still have the fastest lap, but we didn't have the range we had yesterday, and that is something we need to understand," he said. "Losing Checo was obviously hugely disappointing.

"Max was coming back at the end there but our tyre deg was higher from halfway through the first stint and it was hard to combat that," he acknowledged. "Ferrari just seemed lighter on the tyres. Obviously they had a pace advantage and that gives you more strategic options.

"So congratulations to Ferrari today, they had a quicker car throughout the majority of the race."

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