Verstappen: "Grand Prix retirement feels absolutely rubbish"

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen has described his retirement at the Canadian Grand Prix as feeling “absolutely rubbish” after running inside the podium positions before his car suffered from a mechanical failure.

After having a lighting start from fifth on the grid to being second by the first corner, Verstappen was looking strong and very competitive in Canada, challenging Lewis Hamilton for the lead once the safety car peeled into the pits. It was on lap 11 however, that the Dutchman’s race fell apart when his Red Bull Racing car ground to a halt on the exit of turn 2 in what was described by Christian Horner as "a complete and sudden loss on the Energy Store".

On his official website, Verstappen was quoted as describing the retirement as being absolutely rubbish: "Suddenly I lost all power. I wanted to accelerate again and then everything went dark, I couldn't even communicate anymore, absolutely nothing.” Verstappen declared.

"It’s a major bummer, especially when you’re second," the Dutchman added. "The start was super, I didn’t have any wheel spin and I think it was the best start they ever had at Red Bull. I didn’t notice anything of me touching Vettel, but well, things like that can happen. Ultimately you still end up with nothing, so it sucks."

Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, went on to finish in third place in the Canadian Grand Prix, holding off the Force India pair and a hard charging Sebastian Vettel to secure his third consecutive podium finish of 2017.

This retirement marks Verstappen’s third retirement of 2017, having previously suffered from a brake failure in Bahrain and being involved in a first lap accident with Kimi Raikkonen in Spain.

Chris Soulsby