Verstappen rues "low grip feeling in the car" and explains his incident with a towel

Following a challenging opening day at the Hungarian Grand Prix, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen was left perplexed about his struggles at the Hungaroring.

Red Bull’s struggles continued on the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Standing next to the track at various corners, the RB21 did not show any particular issues, it simply lacked grip in the high temperatures.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit looks to use the highest-downforce configuration among the top teams – at least their rear wing appears to be the most loaded compared to what McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes elected to run this weekend.

Despite the high downforce, the car simply did not generate the necessary downforce through the flowing sequences of twisting, medium-speed corners on Day 1 at the Mogyoród race track.

Verstappen finished ninth in the early afternoon session before the went on to drop down the order to P14. The Dutchman was left to rue the low grip feeling in the car for his struggled at the Hungaroring.

“Today was quite tough and it was a low grip feeling in the car and not as balanced as we would have liked. It is difficult to say what the problem was, as nothing really worked, so we will have to investigate overnight as so far it has not been our weekend.

"During the session I had a towel that you wipe your face with in the car when I went out. Instead of it potentially flying in between my feet, which would have been dangerous, I drove off the line and got rid of it in the safest way possible.

"Overall today wasn’t great so we need to understand what was causing the problems and I’m sure that we can do better and turn things around. The McLarens are looking strong so we will need to look at what we can do to be better.”