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Max Verstappen: Red Bull driver says huge Dutch Grand Prix crash 'could have been a lot worse'

Max Verstappen admitted his huge crash at the Dutch Grand Prix "could have been a lot worse" after he lost control of his Red Bull on the opening lap of his final home event.

Verstappen caught too much of the damp kerb through the normally flat-out banked corner and hit the outside barriers hard before coming to a halt in front of a packed Zandvoort crowd.

The severity of the incident caused a red flag but Verstappen walked away unharmed from what is likely to be the last Dutch Grand Prix of his career - as the event does not have a contract beyond this year.

"It was of course still quite wet in that corner. As soon as I was going through the corner, I could see a little bit of a dry line coming, and I thought from that point on I could accelerate again, but it suddenly then accelerated a lot," Verstappen explained to Sky Sports F1.

"It caught me out, simple as that. I tried to correct it but couldn't. And then you hit the wall, but it could have been a lot worse because there were a lot of cars behind me as well, but luckily that all went well."

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Verstappen analyses his crash which took him out of the Dutch Grand Prix early on

Rosberg on Verstappen's crash

Sky Sports F1's Nico Rosberg

"It's wet, dry, it's a mix of everything. It's incredibly difficult on slick tyres to drive through this high-speed, fast corner. It's the hardest thing in the world.

"Max is clearly tighter than everybody else and when you look more closely it looks like the dry patch is offset about 50 centimetres from the inside.

"I think he just put a bit too much throttle down and you're gone. He's the greatest driver out there, one of the greatest of all time, that just goes to show how difficult it is in these conditions.

"Probably that was Max's mistake."

Verstappen: Zandvoort highlighted Red Bull are fourth fastest

It was a dramatic end to a disappointing first race after the summer break for Red Bull, just days after Verstappen signed a new contract to stay with the team until at least the end of 2030.

Verstappen started and finish Saturday's Sprint in sixth and was half a second behind pace-setters Mercedes and McLaren in both qualifying sessions.

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Having been able to compete at the front in the four races before the summer break, with three podiums in July, it was a surprise to see Red Bull take a step back.

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Nico Rosberg discusses Verstappen's contract extension with Red Bull, saying it's a 'super important message' for the team

"If you look on average the whole season we have been fourth fastest, I think this weekend really highlighted that," said Verstappen.

"We're a little bit behind, we want to be closer. Maybe [at the next race] in Monza we are, but I don't know.

"We're getting towards the end of the season, you also have to look at next year. I think there are a few things on the car we are looking at that can only be changed next year, to really find a lot more performance."

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The Sky Sports F1 team discuss why Verstappen has stayed at Red Bull

Red Bull did not bring a major upgrade to Zandvoort, only a new front corner, so team boss Laurent Mekies says they need to understand if their lack of performance was circuit specific, or to do with previous upgrades.

"Performance-wise I think there is nowhere to hide. It was a very difficult weekend. It seems we have made a bit of a step back compared to where we were before the summer break," he said.

"Of course we will never know what the real pace of the car would have been with Max. It's fair to say session after session it looked more difficult than it was in Budapest or Spa or Austria."

Formula 1 heads to Monza for Ferrari's home race at the Italian Grand Prix on September 4-6, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime