Formally a second place, basically a victory. In Sochi, Max Verstappen he could not ask for more than the 18 points obtained. He started from the back of the grid for using the fourth power unit, overtook that Valtteri Bottas that Mercedes had backed up to stop him, went into tire crisis at the end but the final rain saved him. Red Bull and the Dutchman were good and lucky to stop at the right time, before the various Perez, Leclerc, Alonso and Norris. The perfect day, even if the glory was taken by Lewis Hamilton, with his 100th success in Formula 1.
Masashi Yamamoto, CEO of Honda F1, confirmed that both in Milton Keynes and in Japan the feeling is that of having ‘escaped’. And at this point Verstappen is his favorite for the World Cup: “The choice of the power unit was not an easy one. We had several options and we had to decide after the first tests. Red Bull thought about it until the last minute, it was clear that we had to use the fourth engine somewhere. All in all, it was the right choice to opt for the Russian Grand Prix “, Yamamoto told the Japanese of AS-web. “At first we thought we would be around fifth place. We knew that Mercedes would be faster than us in Sochi, we thought they would score a double. But it went as best he could not: not only has Max limited the damage but he has an extra engine available, this is a great advantage for him.“.