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'F***ing joke': Verstappen in foul-mouthed spray at own team

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has blasted his formula one team’s engineers in an expletive-laden rant, following another power failure at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Verstappen said he was “not in the holiday mood” as his final race before Formula One’s mid-season break ended after just six laps at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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A loss of power to Verstappen’s Red Bull forced him to stop the car after working his way up to fifth, prompting a foul-mouthed tirade over team radio.

“Mate, really? Can I not just keep going? I don’t care if this f***ing engine blows up,” the Dutchman fumed at his race engineer.

“What a f***ing joke, all the f***ing time. Honestly. Argh.”

Verstappen was fuming after his latest Red Bull car troubles. Pic: Getty
Verstappen was fuming after his latest Red Bull car troubles. Pic: Getty

It was the fourth time the Dutchman has failed to finish this season and the ongoing frustration with power-unit suppliers Renault dampened his spirits ahead of a four-week break.

Red Bull Christian Horner seemed equally as displeased with Renault in his post-race comments to Sky F1.

‘We pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines and for first class, or state-of-the-art product, and you can see it’s quite clearly some way below that,” Horner said.

“I’ll let Cyril (Abiteboul, Renault’s team boss) come up with the excuses afterwards.”

Verstappen was still fuming about his latest car troubles after the race.

“At the moment I don’t really care. I hate it when people say, ‘Bad luck and enjoy your holiday’. For the first week I won’t enjoy it because of my last race. I don’t feel like I’m in the holiday mood,” Verstappen said.

Although the Dutchman retired early on, Daniel Ricciardo overcame the disappointment of failing to get out of Q2 and starting 12th to finish fourth, despite a late collision with Valtteri Bottas.

“For Danny and me, it is just not at all how it should be. You pay millions for what you hope is a decent engine, but it keeps breaking down,” Verstappen added.

“We were also the slowest out there, it was difficult to accept, and I was very upset over the radio. I’m disappointed, the team is disappointed, the fans are disappointed, they came all this way and only see you do five or six laps.

“I was 25 seconds clear of Daniel because of our starting positions and I felt okay, so we could have easily been fifth. That is valuable points thrown away.”

Ricciardo snatched fourth place in Hungary despite a late collision with Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas, while Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has won from pole position to go into the August break with a 24-point lead over rival Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel who was runner-up, 17.1 seconds behind, also survived a late collision with Hamilton’s teammate Bottas on a dry and sweltering afternoon at the Hungaroring outside Budapest.

With agencies