Red Bull boss Christian Horner blames new track limit rules for F1 champ Max Verstappen’s “unlucky” qualifying at United States GP

Max Verstappen has won uncountable achievements in his entire life. The Dutchman has often shown his capabilities at the very beginning of a Grand Prix, or the main race of the event.

However, the US Grand Prix proved to be tricky even for the Hulk of the Industry, as he failed to qualify fastest for the main race, which is usually very unlikely for Verstappen.

Verstappen failed to qualify fastest for the main race

As always, the audience expected Max Verstappen to be the king of the grid by being the fastest driver at the end. However, shockingly, at the Americas Circuit, the three-time World Champion failed to show his charisma in the qualifier by losing the pole position.

The driver has claimed that his haste on the grid betrayed him along with the track limits, which resulted in his fastest lap being deleted at Turn 19.

 Verstappen said, “I knew that it was going to be a close call.”

“I made a little mistake in Turn 1, so I had to push for it in the rest of the lap. It’s fine margins, I didn’t even understeer, I just tried to maximize the corner and I misjudged it by a little bit.”

“It’s very fine margins when you are pushing to the limit. A bit unfortunate, but it also makes the Sunday a bit more fun.”

Additionally, Verstappen experienced a braking error at the first corner of the circuit, causing him to fall off track. Consequently, he had to push harder during the rest of the lap, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc advanced to the provisional pole position.

After the race, when he was asked what went wrong, Verstappen replied, “The pace has been always there, just unfortunate with a track limit in the first qualifying. But today has been pretty straightforward. I think the only thing was lap one, turn one to try and stay ahead, but after that, I think we just settled in nicely after a few laps. At one point I could just look after my tyres till the end and have a bit of fun at the end trying to push a bit more.”

Red Bull’s Christian Horner points finger at updated track limit regulations

Christian Horner explained that Verstappen’s luck did not support him today, although the Red Bull driver will indeed have a ferocious comeback at the next race. He also said that the new track limits at Turn 9, Turn 12, and Turn 19, where the white lines broadened, had made the race trickier and more challenging than before. Verstappen also playfully challenges others to test track limits in the RB19.

The Red Bull boss said, “ I think it was discussed between, I guess the drivers and the team managers in their meeting last night, the white line has now become more of a stripe than a line. But it’s the same for everybody.”

“It was unlucky yesterday. The mistake wasn’t at turn 19 yesterday, it was more the lock-up that then put Max under massive pressure for the rest of the lap.”

“It is what it is. What you have to look at about that lap yesterday, Max dropped two-tenths at the first turn with a bit of a lock up, It was mighty and if you look at the speed that he took in turn 19, it was about 5 or 6ks quicker than anything that we’ve seen, so the margins are so, so fine.”

“He was chasing that pole and he had it momentarily had it not been for that white line or wider stripe, we’d have kept it. Look, it’s going to make a more exciting grand prix tomorrow.”

Do you think Verstappen will be able to pave his way through the rest of the drivers at the US GP main event? Tell us in the comment section below.