Verstappen 'lucky' to escape grid chaos

Max Verstappen battled his way back to sixth place after a poor start in the Singapore Grand, but admitted he was lucky to even be in the race after coming close to being caught up in Nico Hulkenberg's accident on the starting grid.

Verstappen was the inadvertent cause of the incident, when a poor start meant that Carlos Sainz behind him had to swerve to the right to avoid running into the back of the struggling Red Bull - and that put Sainz in the path of the fast-starting Hulkenberg, which ended in contact.

"I had a bad start," Verstappen admitted. "It wasn’t as bad as Monza but it wasn’t good, which is disappointing. I had a lot of wheel spin and then with Hulkenberg spinning in front of me, I had to brake even more which compromised my whole start."

While other drivers had their race compromised by debris from Hulkenberg's accident, Verstappen confirmed that he had escaped the incident unscathed.

"I have no clue!" he said when asked how he'd managed to stay out of trouble. "I was lucky not to get hit, but it as all about the start because he should have been behind us."

Despite dropping four positions as a result of the poor start, Verstappen was able to make his way back to sixth place by the time the chequered flag came out," although he lost out in a pitched battle to overtake Daniil Kvyat, the man he replaced at Red Bull earlier this season.

"I had some pretty intense battles which I enjoy but it’s tricky to pass here, so you do get a bit stuck.

"Considering the start, I think we did the best we could to get past," he continued. "Dani and I fought quite hard, but we didn’t touch so that’s always a positive. I like overtaking, but I wasn’t fighting for a position that I would have liked so it’s not as much fun.

"It's just very difficult, and as soon as you stay behind for like three or four laps and you try and get past it just destroys your tyres.

"As soon as I was in clear air it was fine, I could manage my tyres, but unfortunately I didn't have that many free laps and it was compromised by the start unfortunately."

Ultimately though Sunday's race was disappointing given the form Verstappen had shown in Saturday's final practice, and Verstappen felt that it had been a missed opportunity for him.

"We have to try and do better in Malaysia, but first we have to focus on getting the start where we’d like it to be."

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Breakfast with ... Bernd Maylander