Verstappen doesn't "really know what happened" at the safety car restart

Despite his brilliant effort to secure pole position for the British Grand Prix, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen had to settle for P5 after having struggled for pace in the tricky changeable conditions at Silverstone.

Having set the quickest time in qualifying at the British Grand Prix, Max Verstappen led off the line, but lost the lead early on to McLaren rival Oscar Piastri.

The Dutchman looked to struggle much in a car that had been set-up to be fast down the straights. That lack of downforce cost him in the wet as he was unable to stay with Piastri after having lost the lead.

At the second safety car restart, Verstappen lost the rear end of his Red Bull, and spun at the exit of Stowe. His mistake saw him drop to P10, and he initially struggled to make any progress. However, he looked more comfortable in his RB21 when the track started to dry, and managed to climb back to fifth at the flag.

His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda started from P12 on the grid, and he never really looked able to make quick progress from there. In fact, the Japanese driver tagged the Haas of Oliver Bearman into a spin for which he was handed a 10-second time penalty, and wound up coming home last of the runners.

“Today wasn’t great. We didn’t think it was going to be so wet today; the weather forecast overnight changed and it was not in our favour, so it was really difficult with the rear wing that we had today.

"Every time we were low on downforce and couldn’t balance it out in the high and low speed, with the tools that we had. Of course, I had the spin and we lost a lot of positions at the restart.

"I don’t really know what happened as I tried to go on the throttle, but we recovered it as much as we could to get to P5. Even after that happened, I continued and the car had no pace which wasn’t great.

"From a positive side, we got our strategy right and did the right thing with the pit stop and staying on the inters. All the calls were correct but the inters just lacked a bit of pace. That is racing though, we will never be happy with fifth, but we move on to the next race.

"The race wasn’t that enjoyable for me but it was nice to see Nico get his first podium and I’m sure he will be celebrating tonight. Spa is next and my favourite on the calendar, so hopefully we will go a bit better there.”