Verstappen Claims Something Wrong With Red Bull Car As He Finishes 22 Seconds Behind Lando Norris

Formula One driver and defending World Champion Max Verstappen in a shocker finished 22-seconds behind McLaren driver Lando Norris in the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday. This was only the second time that Verstappen has not won his home Grand Prix as the Red Bull driver finished second by a huge margin in the first race after the mid season break. 

Read More| Leclerc's podium finish raises spirits at Ferrari

The win for Lando Norris edges him closer and closer to Max Verstappen who currently sits at the top of the Drivers Championship. Verstappen believes there is something wrong with the car and that the issue has come in after the first few races.

‘Something In The Car Has Made It Difficult To Drive’

According to Verstappen, as the races have proceeded, several issues have continued to reveal themselves which have been hurting the dominance of Max Verstappen and Red Bull in both Championships. 

Read More| Bottas Believes Kick Sauber Can Improve In Second Half Of Season

"It wasn't there in the first few races, but something in the car has made it more difficult to drive. It's very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. And that is then hurting, of course, our one-lap performance, but also our long-run. The whole weekend has been the same limitations. I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race, so it's just very hard to solve at the moment.  It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on degradation at the moment. That's a bit weird because I think the last few years normally we've been quite good on that. So, something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to quickly try to improve. It's just not a connected balance, front or rear," said Verstappen after losing his home race to the British driver by 22-seconds. 

‘There Was Nothing I Could Do’ 

Max Verstappen had taken the lead of the race during Lap 1 after a great start from the Dutch driver but that lead only lasted for a short while as on Lap 18, Lando Norris breezed past Max Verstappen and there was nothing the defending World Champion could do about it. 

"I was just doing my own race, looking after the tyres, I tried to do the best I could. But at one point, nothing was turning or responding anymore. So then Lando got quite close the first time, like he said, he was close but not close enough. And then the next lap, there was nothing that I could do. So once he passed, I just focused on doing my race, tried to bring it to the end in second."

It would be interesting to see if Red Bull are able to fix the issues with their car as they head to Monza with a small 30-point lead in the Constructors Standings and a 70-point lead in the Drivers Championship.