The reigning world champion endured a terrible first two practice sessions on Friday amid reliability issues and now faces an anxious wait for P3 before qualifying.
“Mate, I couldn’t f**king steer, it’s locked,” Verstappen shouted down the team radio.
Earlier, he had brushed a wall during the first-ever Miami practice session.
Red Bull changed the gearbox on his RB18 as a precautionary measure.
Overheating rear brakes saw him return to the garage in the second session.
Verstappen’s ‘horrible day’ at F1 Miami Grand Prix practice
Verstappen said: “Just not a good day, and of course these days are extremely painful, especially on a track like this where you want to be out there and learn the track and get up to speed.
“So I basically did four or five laps today – almost laps – so that’s not what you want.”
He explained his issues in P2: “Some hydraulic issues, so as soon as I went out of the pits I couldn’t really steer, like I was locked, and yes also the brakes were on fire. So a lot of problems.”
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Verstappen explained his lack of laps: “I mean, of course I’ll try to catch up, but it’s just not ideal. Everyone is of course a bit more into the running but not only that we have no information on my car with what we have to do, so yes, it’s extremely painful.”
He said about the red flags on Friday: “That’s not an excuse for what’s happening for us today. We just have to look at ourselves and I don’t care what happens on the track with red flags. We could have done a lot more today.”
“He had a horrible day,” team principal Horner told Sky Sports.
“He had an issue this morning so, as a precaution, we changed the gearbox and one of the coolers.
“He drove out of the pit lane and had a hydraulic issue which caused damage to the rear brake.
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“He had five laps which were all competitive. Thankfully with the red flags he hasn’t lost too much. But it is frustrating not to have the track time.
“He will probably do more laps in P3 than normal. But we know how good Max is at adapting to new venues.”
Mercedes’ George Russell was fastest in P2 while Lewis Hamilton was fourth in a promising sign of the team’s improvement.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was fastest in P1, finished behind Russell. Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was third.
“Checo had a good session,” Horner said. “We got a lot of info from him and that will influence the direction that Max takes.”
Verstappen unveils Miami Vice helmet
F1 world champion Max Verstappen has shown off a special one-off helmet design that he will use at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver will celebrate the inaugural race to be held in Miami by using a brand new helmet design incorporating “a bit of Miami vice flavor”.
In a move away from his traditional, predominantly white helmet, Verstappen’s new design features navy and light blue colours, as well as pink accents.
“A special one, for a special weekend – as you can see, it’s for Miami,” said Verstappen.
“It’s the first time we go there so I’m really excited to be there and I thought why not add a bit of Miami vice flavor to it.
“I really like this one, I think it is one of my favorite ones [helmet designs]. I’m definitely looking forward to using this one.”
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