Williams took the brutal decision to give Sargeant’s car to his team-mate, meaning the American can no longer complete through no fault of his own. The decision was made because Albon has a much higher chance of scoring points.
Verstappen did not hold back when he was asked about the cruel call. “I understand it from the performance aspect, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that this obviously sucks for Logan,” Verstappen told Dutch media.
“Of course I’m not in that position, but then I would already be on the plane home. If that were to happen to me, I would completely flatten mine too, no one can drive.”
Verstappen was joking in his response, but he will never be put in such a position. He added: “But in my situation that is of course not going to happen, which I think is logical.”
Verstappen secured pole position at the Australian Grand Prix as he looks to maintain his 100 per cent record this season. The 26-year-old has attempted to play down expectations by claiming Carlos Sainz, who will also start on the front row, will be a serious threat.
“That’s still not a given that tomorrow is going to be good because it seems like Ferrari are very strong over one lap but also in the long run it seems that they can keep their tyres alive a bit better than others,” said Verstappen.
“They seem very quick also in the long run. So a bit of a question mark for tomorrow, but I guess that makes it very exciting. So we’ll find out tomorrow.”
Sainz added: “I think nowadays you need to be 100 per cent to beat Max and today I wasn’t. And probably due to that, I missed out on pole. I think today if I would have done a 100 per cent good job, pole position could have been possible.
“Tomorrow will be the same. I need to be 100 per cent to beat Max. I will give it my absolute everything to do it because it’s been a while since Singapore, and he’s been on that top step since.
“But yeah, if there’s one weekend where we have a good pace, it’s this one. Tricky track to overtake, tricky on tyres. So who knows? I think we might have a chance.”
