Red Bull reveal 'aggressive' Max Verstappen choice which almost stole Singapore victory

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has acknowledged that Red Bull's "aggressive" strategy to start Max Verstappen on the soft tyres left him "exposed" in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen finished where he started at the Marina Bay Circuit, collecting 18 crucial points after surviving a lengthy battle against Lando Norris. 

The Dutchman started on the soft compound while his rivals were all on mediums, causing Verstappen to suffer from tyre degradation much quicker. 

This put him under immense pressure from Norris for much of the grand prix, although the Red Bull driver remained ahead of the Briton.

Verstappen achieved this despite complaining of several issues with his RB21, surrounding the downshifts and the balance of the car.

Asked about the issues Verstappen dealt with during the race, Mekies told select media including RacingNews365: "In terms of a single issue for the race, I'm not able to tell you. I think it was very tough out there. 

"We started with the soft tyre, we were one of the only cars in the top 10 [to do that], maybe only us and Isack [Hadjar].

"We did that to try to, obviously maximise our chance to get George at the start. It didn't happen. And I think that very quickly exposed us to have more degradation, to have basically a more difficult car to deal with. 

"As a result of that, we did earlier, push very hard on the hard tyres and managed to close the gap. But what it meant is that most of the race Max had to defend with older tyres against his competition."

On the grid, Verstappen was the only driver in the top-seven to start on the soft compound, something Red Bull felt was needed to challenge George Russell for victory. 

Unfortunately, due to being on the dirty side of the grid at the Marina Bay Circuit, Verstappen was slow off the line and had to watch Russell create a comfortable advantage early on.

It became a race of defending rather than attacking for the four-time world champion, with the Milton Keynes-based outfit now needing to understand what caused the issues with the car.

Addressing Verstappen starting on the soft tyres, Mekies said: "So, it was a choice of aggressiveness that we felt was necessary if we wanted to have a shot at the win.

"The good news is that he did a great job at managing to bring the car back in second despite the pressure from Lando...

"I think, nonetheless, I think you're right, underneath that there is probably a few things that we need to work on that were disturbing him during the race, but I will qualify them of probably something of a lower magnitude."