11/07/2024
NEWS STORY
Praising his team's strategy in a difficult race, Max Verstappen admits that he feared the best he could hope for was P5 or even P6.
Qualifying fourth, a strong start saw the world champion pass Lando Norris for third on the opening lap. However, as the first rain began to fall the Dutchman found himself struggling and on Lap 15 he was passed by the Briton, and then by his McLaren teammate just three laps later.
When the rain began to fall more heavily, Verstappen was among the first to stop and once things had settled down again he was running third behind Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
It was at the next round of stops that McLaren made the disastrous decision to switch Norris to softs, while Red Bull opted for hards for its driver.
Verstappen soon overhauled Norris setting up the grandstand finish that was the Dutchman's pursuit of race leader Hamilton who had also been fitted with softs for the final stint.
"The beginning was not very good," Verstappen told reporters at race end. "I tried to keep up but I just ran out of tyres. Everything was running hot and I just struggled for grip.
"So then Lando got by, then Oscar got by, as it started to rain. I had no grip as well there, I didn't want to take too much risk as well because I just, it didn't feel good, it didn't feel comfortable. So I was like, I'll just sit here and try to survive. And that's what I did.
"At one point even Carlos rocked up with the party," he laughed. "So I was like, Jesus, a really bad afternoon.
"But then yeah, we just kept it on track, made the right calls from the slick to the Inter and then from the Inter back to the slicks, which just basically kept me in contention really.
"By making the right calls today, we were there at the right time and to the end with the hot tyre that was the right call for definitely. So we could push on the tyre because the medium already wasn't good enough for us."
Admitting that he feared that it " was looking like P5 or P6 even," he said, "on a poor afternoon, I would say in terms of performance to be second, I take that".
His praise for the strategic calls come just days after he criticised his team for its strategy in Austria, where he feels not being allowed to pit earlier cost him the win.
"It's a constant discussion that I have with GP (Gianpiero Lambiase)," said Verstappen, "you know, with the radar, he tells me the information he has as well as he can and then as a driver, of course, at one point, if you don't feel like, you know, you can continue on a slick or you think now it's time to go to the Inter, you have to shout over the radio that you're coming in. So that's what we did and then it's the same from Inter to slick.
"Of course, the team can sometimes help you a little more with that if someone is on a slick already," he added. "But at the end of the day, the sun was coming out, the track was still drying up quite quickly from the last few days even.
"We took a bit of risk, you know, not being 100% sure this is the right lap, but we went for it and it was the right lap at the end of the day."
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