Max Verstappen found his suspension failure during Formula 1 qualifying for the United States Grand Prix “weird to understand” after a heavy hit with one of the kerbs brought his session to an early end. Verstappen clipped the sausage kerb at the exit of Turn 15 towards the end of Q1, with the impact resulting in a rear-left suspension failure and subsequent driveshaft issue. It meant he could take no further part in qualifying, leaving him a lowly 15th on the grid for Sunday’s race. The Red Bull F1 driver said after the session that he was unsure why the failure had occurred as it did, having often used the kerbed part of the exit in the past without any issues. “I touched the outside kerb and it failed the suspension and took the driveshaft out, which is a bit weird because before we were always taking that kerb, because it opens the corner a little bit more to make it faster,” Verstappen explained. “Those kerbs have been there for like two years now, so it is a bit weird to understand. Also everybody else in qualifying took those orange kerbs and on our car it failed. We’ll have a look into it.” Verstappen said he was unsure whether the team would need to take a grid penalty as a result of the damage, but was hopeful of a fightback through the field similar to his charge from 16th to fourth in 2017. “I think the pace in the race is always a bit more competitive, so I hope that we can clear the midfield quite fast like last year and then we can still do a good job,” Verstappen said.<doc-sep>Max Verstappen during Q1 at Circuit of The Americas. Photo : Kurt Bradley The Formula One driver championship is essentially decided, with leader Lewis Hamilton only needing score eight points more than Sebastian Vettel to clinch his fifth title. So, no, that’s not the close, exciting battle battle at this weekend’s U.S. Grand Prix. The real battle is Max Verstappen versus the kerbs. Advertisement Not only will the kerbs be a reminder of the painful steward ruling at Circuit of The Americas in 2017 that took away Verstappen’s hard-fought podium finish, a marker chipping away at his soul as each lap clicks by, but they’ll apparently also chip away at his car—a too-close encounter with one knocked him out of qualifying contention almost as soon as the session started. Verstappen had a banner U.S. race last year, driving from 17th to third after a grid penalty started him in the back. He crossed the line with a podium thanks to a wild last-lap pass on Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, but stewards knocked him back to fourth for “leaving the track and gaining an advantage.” To prevent Verstappen from leaving the track to gain an advantage this year, F1’s governing body, the FIA, added some extra kerbs to the turns where he made the pass last year. The Circuit of The Americas Twitter account called them the Verstoppers, something the rest of us wish we’d come up with first but didn’t because we don’t get paid to make funny tweets about kerbs. It didn’t take long for Verstappen to have a run in with his new mortal enemy, the kerbs at COTA, this weekend. It wasn’t the Verstoppers that got him—this time—but instead, it was a kerb also there last year in turn 15. Verstappen’s car slowed during the first session of qualifying, and it looked like a reliability issue at first. It must have felt like one, too. “Something broke… driveshaft… something,” he radioed to his team. But it wasn’t a reliability issue. It was a kerb issue that damaged Verstappen’s suspension to the point that the team didn’t get the car back out to make a run during Q2, so he automatically didn’t make it to Q3. Other t eams warned their drivers to watch out in turn 15, while Verstappen’s car sat in the garage. Advertisement Verstappen’s contention with the kerbs landed him with a qualifying spot of 15th, while championship contenders Hamilton and Vettel topped the board in Q3. Hamilton’s on pole and Vettel second, in a race to decide whether Vettel can prolong Hamilton’s fifth championship clinch a little longer. But the real contest here isn’t one between drivers. They tend to have a rather predictable finishing order anyway. It is, instead, a contest between man and kerb, and only time will tell who emerges victorious.<doc-sep>Ricciardo won two of the first six races in 2018 but has not stood on the podium since winning the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position. He has outpaced teammate Max Verstappen in only four qualifying sessions across the 17 events so far, including Verstappen's no-show in Monaco qualifying and crash in Bahrain. Ricciardo trails Verstappen by 0.22s on average across the qualifying sessions held in similar conditions and that they have both completed. "It's been pretty bleak," said Ricciardo. "Maybe I made my own bed in Monaco, because I was like, 'This has been awesome, and this happiness will carry me through the rest of the year'. "So, if there is someone who's controlling it all, maybe they took that literally for me! "Last year I wasn't that happy with my qualifying, I thought [at] the start of this year I started to improve some things, but I haven't really got everything out of it. "Or maybe Max is just getting a lot better, I don't know! [But] I'm not done yet." On average, Ricciardo has trailed Verstappen by two tenths in dry qualifying sessions this season. The Australian says his teammate deserves credit for his efforts but "it's not necessarily he was like bigger balls in that corner or whatever". Ricciardo added: "In hindsight I'd like to be more proactive on some things, more set-up. "I feel like just a lot of the time we understand it, but then it's too late. "I guess we're still learning, that's the thing, but obviously he's been getting more on top of than I have." Ricciardo has not been helped by a bad run including technical setbacks, grid penalties and plain bad luck. He was caught out by the weather in Hungary and Belgium, grid penalties limited him to Q1 laps only in Germany, Italy and Russia and in Japan he suffered a throttle actuator failure at the start of Q2. Ricciardo has pointed out before that even his Monaco success was tainted by the MGU-K failure in the race that made the grand prix more difficult. "We have really struggled to think of a smooth weekend we've had from start to finish," said Ricciardo, who will leave Red Bull for Renault after this season and is seeking to end his time with his long-term backer on a high. "I don't want it to come across all negative but I think it's more like we've just had a really unlucky run. I don't really know why. Obviously I'm frustrated and fed up but I'm not going to let it get the best of me. "I'm just going to keep trying and believe it will eventually turn around, hopefully at some point this year."<doc-sep>
The Dutchman damaged the lower right rear wishbone on the kerbs at Turn 15 during Q1 in Austin. Although he managed to get his car back to the pits, the breakage and the fact the driveshaft had been pulled out meant he was unable to return to the circuit and he will start 15th. Although some drivers were advised to steer clear of the kerbs in qualifying, Verstappen said there had been no concern from his side of the garage about running over them. "Everybody was taking them," said Verstappen. "We also drove like that the last two years and again today was all fine, so it is really unexpected. "Everything was well within the limits of everything, so there was nothing crazy. As you can see, everyone else was doing it as well. "So that is why we are a little bit amazed how it happened." Verstappen says the kerbs will not be a problem for him on Sunday, however, because the racing lines are different. "In the race it should not be a problem as you don't use that much of the track anyway for tyres and whatever. So it should be alright." Red Bull was unclear if Verstappen's gearbox had been damaged in the incident, and would have little choice to replace it and move further down the order if there was a problem. "If that is the case, then we take a penalty and we start a little bit further back but it is not going to change the world," he added Even without the suspension problem, Verstappen was sceptical about being able to mount a proper challenge to Mercedes and Ferrari. "I think they were too quick," he said. "We never thought we had a chance in qualifying. I think we have a good race car. I felt good in qualifying with the laps I did. "Hopefully we can clear the midfield quite quickly and we can still be in the race like last year and have a good fight with them." Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB14 Photo by: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images