Max Verstappen has lamented the delay from the race director in bringing out the red flag after he was unable to set a final flying lap.
It took more than 30 seconds from Lance Stroll’s crash to the red flag being shown which sent both Red Bulls out in Q2.
Max Verstappen furious with late red flag call in Brazil
Verstappen was in P12 and was right behind Stroll when the Aston driver crashed at Turn 2 and so would have expected the red flag to come but F1 race director Niels Wittich opted to delay the call which allowed the likes of Lando Norris to set a flying lap and move safely into the top 10.
Verstappen was not so fortunate and as he approached sector three, the red flag was finally shown by which point there was not enough time left for the session to be restarted.
Visibly furious, Verstappen described as “bulls**t” when speaking to Sky in the media zone.
“The car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red,” he said. “I don’t understand why it needs to take 30, 40 seconds for a red flag to come out. It’s just bulls**t.”
Verstappen was told by the interviewer that they were trying to let some cars finish their flying laps to which he said the whole situation was “ridiculous.”
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“Honestly, I let it go,” he said. “It’s so stupid anyway to talk about. It’s ridiculous.”
Verstappen will start P17 in the race having taken a five-place grid penalty for a new engine.
He may however move up if the cars of Fernando Alonso and Stroll, who both crashed in qualifying, are not fixed in time for the race.
It is the second race director decision that has not gone Red Bull’s way after a slow VSC allowed McLaren to swap their drivers in order to ensure Norris got the maximum points in the sprint.
Verstappen, who was third and closing to Norris, then found himself stuck behind Oscar Piastri but the VSC was lifted after the final DRS zone and the Dutchman had no time to try and attack the Australian.
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