Motorsport-Verstappen unhappily content with second place in Saudi Arabia | The mighty 790 KFGO

(Reuters) – Max Verstappen remained at the top of the Formula One World Championship in Saudi Arabia on Sunday but was still unhappy about having to settle for second place in the race behind Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

The Dutchman paid the price for a driveshaft failure in Saturday’s qualifying which saw him struggle from 15th on the Jeddah grid while the Mexican Perez started from pole position.

“I regained the second, which is good, and of course the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy,” Verstappen told reporters.

“But personally I’m not happy because I’m not here to finish second, especially when you also work very hard in the factory to make sure you arrive here in good shape and basically make sure everything is right .

“And then you have to do a recovery race, I like that. I don’t mind doing it. But when you’re fighting for a championship, and especially when it looks like it’s going to be between two cars, you have to make sure that the two cars are reliable too.”

The two-time world champion, who won the opening race in Bahrain with Perez second, stayed on top overall as he set the fastest lap en route to the checkered flag.

“It wasn’t easy to get through the field,” said Verstappen.

He was already second at half the distance, but was shocked when he felt that the drive shaft was running “a bit unsteadily”.

“It makes a funny noise at high speed,” he told his race engineer.

Team boss Christian Horner said Red Bull checked the data and found nothing to worry about, allowing the two drivers to ride freely.

“I was second, we were a long way behind, so at some point we decided, shall we say, call it a day and settle for second place, which I think was a very good catch-up anyway,” said Verstappen.

“I tried it at the end (for fastest lap) so luckily it worked.”

Since last May’s Spanish Grand Prix, the champion has now led the general classification for 19 consecutive races.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, Editing by Clare Fallon)