Brundle "feels sorry" for Verstappen after frustrating Italian Grand Prix
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Former F1 driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has stated that he felt sorry for Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman suffering contact at the start of the Italian Grand Prix despite cautiously approaching the narrow first chicane.
Verstappen was always going to have a tricky race, starting from the back after getting on the end of grid penalties on a track that doesn't typically favour Red Bull packages.
The seven-time Grand Prix winner had some extra bad luck at the start of the race, however, as Brundle explained.
"Max Verstappen started at the back after engine penalties and was the last unlapped runner in eighth place," he wrote in his column for Sky Sports F1.
"It could have been much better without front-wing crunching contact in the first corner for the second consecutive Sunday, but I felt sorry for him on that one as from the onboard camera he was clearly being very cautious."
"It sounded as though he locked the rear axle, hard on the brakes as the pack backed up."
As he already had a comeback race on his hands, the T1 contact was the final nail in the coffin for the Dutchman potentially getting a strong result for Red Bull.
He came back to P8, however, finishing just over ten seconds behind teammate Alexander Albon.
Our race pace was good, but this just wasn’t our race. We aim to bounce back in the next few races #KeepPushing #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/UXnOClw7Of
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 8, 2019