The Red Bull came into the weekend and didn’t seem to have the best of pace initially, however on Qualifying day Verstappen pushed hard and managed P3. From there he raced a good race to end one place up, in second, even though McLaren still look to be much stronger.
Max Verstappen also got into the battles with his rival from last year, Lando Norris, and said on the topic, “it was a difficult race of course. But at the end it was fun. Lando had a little moment on entry of 6, so he lost a lot of momentum there. That’s why I got close and then I got the DRS. I got close but it’s very hard to pass around here,” he admits.
“It was fun. Those last laps pushing, at least when you’re fighting for the win. But I’m just very happy to bring it home, score good points and this is a decent starting point for us.”
Max also took a risk when it came to tire strategy, as both McLarens went in for inters and Verstappen stayed out before eventually coming in. When asked, he said, “It was a bit of a panic, like I need to box. They went in. I stayed out. The first lap honestly I think it was alright. But unfortunately the weather continued a little bit more on the other side of the track as well. […] I think it was worth a gamble. It was quite spicy out there with the slick tires but it was alright at the end.”
Overall, the performance of the Red Bull doesn’t seem to be incredibly shocking in either way, perhaps more comparable to last year’s car. The reigning world champion added on about the performance, “I think it is what I expected to be. You can see in the first stint we were lacking a little bit of pace compared to the McLaren but it’s still 18 points more what I had here last year, so I’ll take that.” The Dutchman concluded, smiling.
