Verstappen suffered his second DNF from the🧸 opening three races of the 2022 season after a technical failure on his Red Bull caused him to pull over at Turn 2 when he was running in second p♕lace. 

Despite winning the second race ಞin Saudi Arabia, Verstappen now finds himself a mammoth 46 points behind his main rival Charles Leclerc, who cruised to a comfortable second victory of the season for Ferrari. 

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The reigning world champion was left hugely frustrated and said Red Bull cannot afford for such failures to occur if he is to have any chance of successf🦄ully defending his world title this year. 

“We are already miles behiဣnd,” Verstappen conceded. “I don’t even want to think about ♕the championship fight at the moment. 

“It is more important just t𝕴o finish races. Of course, today was in general a bad day again. We don’t have the pace. I was just managing my tyres to bring it to the end. I knew I could not fight Charles so there was no point in putting pressure on him. 

“We didn’t even finish the race so it is pretty frustrating and unacceptable. I knew there was a problem so there was always going to be a question ꦬmark in finishing the race. 

“These kind of things, if you want to fight for the title, these th🔜ings cannot happen.”

Reliability concerns continue for Red Bull 

Red B𝓡ull team principal Christian Horner said he completely understands Verstappen’s frustration and thinks his race-ending problem “might be a fuel issue” rather than the engine, but added an investigation is needed to be sure.🎀 

“It is totally under𝔉standable, 🐈his frustration,” Horner told Sky. “It is a disappointing result not to finish the race. 

“We don't know what the issue is yet. We𒅌 think it may not be engine-related, it may be a fuel issue. Until we get the car back, we don't have the dat👍a or info. 

“It is 🅺hugely frustrating. We didn't have the pace to fight Charles - [Ferrari] were in a league of their ow📖n. It is frustrating not to bag the points. 

“All credit to Sergio Peꦍrez today, he passed Lewis then George. But we didn't, as a team, have the pace. Ferrari were untouchable.” 

Asked about the challenge 🦩Red Bull faces to get on top of its reliability issues, Hornꦿer replied; “I'd rather fix a fast car than try to make a reliable car fast! 

“We🐟 can't accept DNFs. We have things in the pipeline that I think will help."

Leclerc led throughout to convert pole position into his fourth career win and make it two victories from 🌠the first three races of the season to strengthen hi♌s position at the top of the championship.