F1 News: Max Verstappen Complains About Austrian Track Layout

Despite leading the grid for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull's Max Verstappen is discontented with the track's boundaries.

His frustration surfaced when a lap time from Q2 was scratched due to a minor transgression of the white line at the track's perimeter, causing him to criticise the track regulation on team radio. His teammate, Sergio Perez, also encountered difficulties, with all his Q2 laps nullified, which has him starting Sunday's race from 15th.

Verstappen's irritation was evident on team radio, as he blasted, "This is a joke honestly with these track limits. **** ridiculous.” The Dutch driver later expanded on the difficulty of abiding by the track's limits during his post-qualification discourse, citing the circuit's narrowness and high speeds as the main challenges. He described qualifying as "surviving." He explained during the post-qualifying press conference:

“It was very difficult because of all the track limits.

“We don’t do this on purpose but, with these speeds and all these high-speed corners, it’s so hard to judge the white line really.

“That’s why I think you could see today a lot of people were getting caught out, including myself, so, honestly, it was about surviving, even in Q3.

“Like the first lap, you just want the banker lap, which takes out the joy a little bit, but I think we still did a good enough lap.

“So yeah, I’m very happy with being on pole but it’s still a very long weekend ahead as well.

“It’s always very tricky around here every year. The cars are big and heavy but just to judge it on a line this wide, at this speed, is incredibly hard.”

Today hosts the Sprint Shootout and Sprint Race where the drivers will be hoping to pick up some additional points without sustaining any damage.