Portugal Colonial - Verstappen claims Red Bull car 'dangerous' after crash

It was his second high-speed crash, caused by problems with his Red Bull’s rear wing, in successive weekends following a similar accident in practice in Austria.

"Same as Austria," said the four-time world champion who has been a critic of his car all season. "The rear wing just doesn't close. I saw the analysis and it looks like it closes, but it doesn't.

"It closes -- but it’s open and you lose a lot of rear downforce and that is why the car spins off the track.

"When it happens one time, it can happen... You know, faults happen.

"But two times, it is getting very dangerous for me because you can really hurt yourself at these high-speed corners when this happens."

He added that he had been lucky to be involved in the scrap for a podium finish with rivals George Russell of Mercedes and Ferrari’s seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton before his crash.

"We were lucky," he said. "Lewis had a penalty, we had a VSC at one point and George had a slow puncture – and Kimi had a problem.

"Even if we finished on the podium, it would have been one we didn’t deserve on pace because on the hard tyres we were nowhere."

He added: "I got a bit lucky with George and Lewis fighting and it was actually quite entertaining to watch in my mirrors. I was like ‘thank-you’, but we were just simply too slow."

His crash triggered a late Safety Car that brought the race to a processional end to the dismay of a huge crowd hoping for a final fast racing lap.

Verstappen is now without a win since the season-ending Abu Dhabi race last season and has secured only two podium finishes this year.

On Sunday, he crashed in front of the so-called Lando Norris grandstand packed with thousands of the defending world champion’s fans.

Norris finished fourth in the race.

He said: "I'm happy, but I would've liked one more lap of racing at the end though. George was on old tyres, so he was at a disadvantage. Lewis would've looked to overtake him and I think I could have taken advantage of that.

"The result is amazing, but the car was pretty shocking and very difficult. We have a lot to improve."

He added: "Every lap I could see the fans – a lot of yellow everywhere. These are the things I will miss one day. It’s pretty mind-blowing."

N.Esteves--PC