Max Verstappen raged over the radio to his Red Bull engineers after what he felt was a pointless pit stop during the British Grand Prix.
The Dutchman started the race second, and by lap 10 he took advantage of a mistake from Carlos Sainz to take the lead of the race. It didn't last long, though, as he picked up a problem when he ran over some debris on the track.
At first he thought it was a puncture, and duly came into the pit lane for a change of rubber in the hope that would make the difference. But it didn't as he continued to lose time compared to those around him.
An investigation from the team revealed an issue with the bodywork on his Red Bull, but they were happy to not retire the car as they felt the problem was "not critical". It meant that he was well out of the running for the win, though, and instead fighting for as many points as he could further back in the order.
A few laps later, he was once again told to come into the pits, which gave the impression that they felt they could make some quick bodywork changes. But all that happened was they changed to a set of hard tyres, which Verstappen struggled to get warm.
The Dutchman was soon on the radio to his race engineer, and clearly not in a good mood after a frustrating race. After being overtaken by the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel as he struggled for grip, he let the team know exactly what he thought of the decision to pit again.
"I don't know why the f**k you put me on these tyres, given the damage," yelled the championship leader. He added: "I'm driving like I'm on ice," as he tried but failed to fight competitively even against some midfield cars.
The Silverstone crowd, which has been rather hostile to the Red Bull man this weekend, was very much taking pleasure from his misfortune. Every time he was overtaken, such as when Esteban Ocon moved past to drop Verstappen to ninth, the crowd let out a huge cheer.
Red Bull later confirmed that Verstappen had suffered floor damage when running over the debris, which is a much bigger issue this season than usual. It meant his Red Bull was losing a lot of downforce, and in turn a lot of lap time as he limped to finish seventh after a late battle with the Haas of Mick Schumacher.
