Verstappen Criticizes Slower Rivals for “Silly” F1 Pitlane Antics in Abu Dhabi Practice: What Happened?

During the evening running at the Yas Marina circuit, the world champion was spotted overtaking other drivers in the pitlane exit.

He managed to edge ahead of George Russell and navigate around Lewis Hamilton, before getting stuck behind Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Verstappen expressed his frustration, blaming the slow and obstructive driving of others for the situation.

“I mean, they have to move,” said Verstappen. “They are all driving slow, and I want to go out because we are limited on time, and they just keep on driving in the middle.

“Then, when I tried to pass, they tried to squeeze me into the wall. So yeah….a bit silly.”

Although attention was drawn to Verstappen’s pitlane maneuvers, his major concern was the poor balance of the Red Bull.

While he secured the third fastest time in FP2, Verstappen was not satisfied with the performance of his RB19.

“From our side, the balance is very off,” he said. “A lot of understeer, a lot of jumping – so definitely a few things to figure out for tomorrow.

“I didn’t expect it to be so far off, and also that is a bit of a question mark for us.

“I mean, we are still P3, it’s not too bad, but balance-wise I think it can be a lot better. So, we will try and have a look what happened there.”

Teammate Sergio Perez expressed similar dissatisfaction, noting that he was unhappy with the car balance despite achieving the fifth quickest time in practice.

“I was struggling a bit with some front end initially, but obviously we hardly got any running, especially on the medium,” he said.

“We know that we have to be very careful on which route we take because, I think when I did my lap, the tyres were on the hot side. So yeah, not very representative at that point.”