Max Verstappen was bewildered by the steward’s decision to delete his fastest lap of the race which cost him one point in the championship.
Verstappen pitted with two laps for the soft tyres before setting the quickest lap of the Grand Prix on the last lap but he went wide at Turn 14 which is one of the corners the stewards have been monitoring all weekend. This gifted Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas the extra point in Portimao.
“That’s a bit odd but whatever,” said Verstappen after the race when told he had his laptime deleted.
Verstappen reckons Red Bull lacked the outright speed against Mercedes in Portugal and was pleased to beat one of the Silver Arrows.
“It was pretty decent,” added Verstappen. “I had a good restart and then I tried to put the pressure on Valtteri but in the end We just lacked a little bit of pace overall.
“Lewis got by again and after the pitstop once we settled in second you could clearly see we lacked a bit of pace. In general it was a bit of an odd weekend.”
