Verstappen puzzled by 'rare' Red Bull problem: 'Very strange'

Max Verstappen has detailed the "rare" brake problems he was battling from the first lap in the United States Grand Prix.

On his way to victory for the third straight year at the Circuit of the Americas, Verstappen was terse over the radio to engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, angrily telling him not to speak while he was in the braking zones.

The RB19 was leading in the closing stages but allowed the chasing Lewis Hamilton to close to within two seconds before his disqualification.

Red Bull Motorsport Advisor Helmut Marko put the issue down to deteriorating new brake pads fitted to the #1 car, with Verstappen describing how the "rare" issue affected him.

Verstappen's puzzling problem

"We had a good start. In the first stint I tried to be patient, but following for so long did hurt my tyres a little bit," he told media including RacingNews365.

"At the same time, I really struggled a lot with my brakes compared to [the Sprint race], so I couldn't be that nice on them and on the tyres under braking. It was very inconsistent.

"It continued throughout the race and was a big factor because I never really had a lot of confidence when braking.

"But nevertheless, as a team we did the right strategy and as a team, we pitted at the right time and because of that, we could work our way forwards.

"I was hoping for a bit more pace, because [in the Sprint] we were more competitive.

"From lap one [I had the problems] and it was the only thing we changed [from the Sprint], it made the race very difficult and I couldn't get on top of it.

"It was very rare to have it in F1, and just made it a bit more difficult.

"Once I was in the lead, I think the gap was okay, but with a few laps to go, there were some backmarkers [to pass] and my tyres were not feeling that great.

"The hard tyre was not very good today, but the gap was just big enough and there were not too many laps left."