It’s just that there’s so little grip because the safety car was driving so slowly,” Verstappen said in an effective defence of the Ferrari driver.
“It was like a turtle. Unbelievable. With that car, to drive 140km/h on the back straight where that was not a damaged car anymore, I don’t understand why we have to drive so slowly.
“We have to investigate. For sure the Mercedes[-AMG GT Black Series] safety car is faster because of the extra aero.
“The Aston Martin is really slow. It definitely needs more grip, because our tyres were stone cold.
“We went into the last corner and I could see Charles understeering, so I’m like ‘OK I’ll back off a bit more and get a better line’.
“But it’s pretty terrible, the way we are driving behind the safety car at the moment.”