Max Verstappen has slammed Pirelli after his costly tyre blowout which robbed him of victory at the Azerbaijan GP. Verstappen was set to increase his lead in the Drivers' Championship having jumped Lewis Hamilton in the pitstop phase but his left-rear tyre suddenly punctured going into Turn 1, just five laps from the end of the race. "Sometimes it's a shitty sport when things like this happen," Verstappen told Ziggo Sport. "We drive lap after lap and everyone drives the same line. "It's weird that it only happens to me. I think they cleaned things up well from Stroll's crash. Probably Pirelli will say again that it was because of carbon debris, which was the case in Imola last year. "The fact is that another tyre blew up. Not just with me, but with Stroll. Just hugely frustrating and with a bit of luck we are still first in the championship, but we could have made the gap much bigger." Verstappen feels that there were no signs of any potential punctures and that it had nothing to do with his increase in pace when he began setting fastest sectors. "I'm bummed by what happened," said Verstappen. "I controlled the pace and had to do a long stint on these tyres and tried to match the times of the drivers behind me. "If I had to go faster than I'd pick up my pace. You don't want to overdo the tyres and we didn't. It wasn't like I suddenly pulled a big gap. "Everything felt very comfortable there were no vibrations or anything. It was very strange what happened."
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