Verstappen strips Russell’s paint, the secret? Marko: “The battery is full”

A crucial maneuver

“The pass on Russell was the key to my race win”. Max Verstappen in the press conference after the Spanish Grand Prix he didn’t have many doubts about what was the decisive moment that paved the way towards the seventh success in ten races in 2024, the third without having the best time trial car in hand. At the start the Mercedes driver surprised both Max Verstappen and Lando Norris on the outside, but Russell proved to be an ally of Verstappen, who after taking command of operations on the third lap was able to take advantage of the fact that Red Bull is very effective usually in the first stints of the race also because Norris was stuck behind Russell, accumulating a disadvantage that the McLaren driver was no longer able to recover despite having a significant advantage in terms of race pace.

“This could be your best chance. Think carefully”the radio communication from Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase which due to the ‘delayed’ broadcast was broadcast precisely at the moment in which the Dutch driver launched the attack on the race leader who, in order to defend himself, tried to cover the inside of the braking section at Turn-1. Verstappen replicated what Russell did two laps earlier by taking advantage of the rubberized line to break away as late as possible and complete the overtaking.

The speed difference between the two cars was very high, Helmut Marko in the usual post-race editorial hosted by the newspaper speedweek explained that Verstappen squeezed everything he had available to complete the overtaking maneuver: “Max was very close to the DRS detection point and still had tires in good condition. Plus, it had a fully charged battery. He was very clever in completing an overtaking move that proved to be very important as he was then able to build up a gap that he and the pit wall were then able to manage well until the checkered flag. We can’t say enough about how excellent the mechanics coordinated by Jonathan Weathley are and how lucid the strategist Hannah Schmitz is in calling the pit stops. They also played their part perfectly in the victory in Spain”.