F1 | Verstappen: “I pushed throughout the race, even without grip”

Fifth victory in seven races, but above all a victory that came almost in a painful way, resisting Norris’ pressure at the end despite the difficulties in tire management. Max Verstappen brings home the fifth seal of this season with a victory built above all yesterday, taking pole which allowed him to maintain the lead from the start of the Grand Prix, a central aspect to bring his Red Bull ahead of everyone under the checkered flag.

Undoubtedly Nico Hulkenberg’s trail helped, giving those useful tenths to extend his lead in the first sector, which was decisive in terms of timing, but also in the other split times the three-time world champion managed to improve, finding other useful cents to hit the pole.

From there his race completely changed, because having the opportunity to remain in the lead from the first lap not only put him in the position of being the one to dictate the pace by not having to overtake other rivals, but also allowed him to lap in clean Air. The latter, in particular, is a crucial element on a track like Imola, where it is difficult to closely follow a rival for long.

In the first part of the race on average, Verstappen immediately managed to find a good feeling, gradually extending his lead to over six seconds. A gap that seemed sufficient to manage the race until the end with a certain certainty, also keeping in mind that behind him Leclerc was starting to put pressure on Norris himself, at least until the error at the Variante Alta which put an end to the hopes of the Monegasque.

In fact, from that moment on, after having managed the rear tyres, a real fear for McLaren, Norris began to push, progressively getting closer to Verstappen, who, especially in the last third of the race, ran into difficulty managing the smaller tyres. hard, even losing several tenths for dubbings that didn’t go exactly smoothly.

“I think that throughout the race I had to push hard to try to make a gap, initially I think that with the medium tires we were quite good on our car. With the hard tyres, which are a little more difficult to manage, and especially in the last 10-15 laps I no longer had grip and was sliding a lot”, commented Verstappen, explaining how his race was essentially divided into two sections, the one with the medium tyre, much more competitive, and the one with the hard compound, where it showed some more signs of difficulty.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“I saw that Lando was approaching, so I did the last 10 laps flat out, but it’s very difficult when the tires no longer work and you have to push hard. I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn’t have any and I’m very happy to have won here today,” added the Dutchman.

Not only was the Dutchman’s contribution fundamental, but also the work done behind the scenes with the factory simulator drivers, including Sebastien Buemi, who tried many things on the setup side until reaching an acceptable compromise. Clearly, with the many changes to the set-up, the race pace has become a sort of unknown, because the few laps with a lot of fuel in FP3, on a track where track position counts a lot, did not give great answers, except some indications in terms of feeling rather than degradation.

“We have changed a lot of things on the car since Friday. Naturally we didn’t have much information for the race, perhaps that’s why it was a little more difficult for us with the hard tires, but I think that from where we started the weekend to today we can be incredibly satisfied with having taken pole and achieved the victory,” added Max.