It wasn’t the most serene day of the world championship for Max Verstappen, who crossed the finish line third after starting from the same position. Between the start and the finish, however, there was a race where contacts were not lacking, in particular with George Russell immediately after the traffic lights went out in turns 2 and 3.
A contact that made the Dutchman nervous, not only because of the maneuver itself, but also because the world champion’s RB19 suffered damage to the floor and left side. Despite the technical problems, at the restart Verstappen was able to recover the position on the British Mercedes, thus returning to third place.
From that moment on, the Red Bull driver was never really in a position to attack Charles Leclerc for the second step of the podium, not even when the latter started to raise his times, lapping above one minute and forty-five.
A race which, after the contact, was therefore confirmed without particular emotions, at least up to the Parc Fermé, where Verstappen did not hesitate to show his frustration with what happened at the beginning of the race. Explaining the incident, Russell had tried to justify himself by claiming that he had accused a lack of grip. A heated exchange of jokes to which, in turn, Verstappen replied: “Man, we all didn’t have any [di grip]. We all need to leave some space. Expect the same next time.”
When later, during the classic post-race interviews, the third classified was asked if he had managed to clarify the dynamics of the contact with Russell, the reigning world champion replied: “It hasn’t been clarified… I don’t understand why it should to risk so much on the first lap.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“I don’t understand why you have to take so many risks on the first lap. He understeered against my side, creating a hole in my side. We all had cold tires, it was easy to lock up”.
Referring to Russell’s explanations, who actually used the lack of grip issue as a pretext from which the contact arose, Verstappen said: “In his nice way of explaining ‘Ah man, I’ve reached locking, look at the onboard ‘… it does not make sense. But that’s okay, we still finished in third position, we got some good points, but it is what it is.”
During another interview session, Verstappen went on to add: “Clearly my start wasn’t great, but we were still in second position going into turn 2. I thought I had left enough room on the inside, otherwise we would both have gone into the wall. , but suddenly I was touched just as I was about to go on the accelerator”.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“Clearly at the beginning I didn’t know the damage to my car, but then when I got off I saw the damage, in a very critical area of the car. It’s not ideal, but in the end we still managed to finish third” , explained Verstappen, still feeling satisfied with the third position given the circumstances.
“He’s very good at explaining and making excuses, everyone had cold tyres. I didn’t risk anything, I gave him enough space because I knew we would have joined each other, but the two have to work together to make the corner and, clearly, he didn’t do it,” added Verstappen, sketching a smile when they were You have been reporting Russell’s words that the accident was caused by cold tyres.
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