Russian Grand Prix – An “unexpected” result for Max Verstappen
After starting at the back of the grid for having changed his power unit for the fourth time, the Red Bull driver finished second, notably benefiting from a stunning end to the race.
After the qualifications, the Dutch driver expected to concede a large number of points to his championship rival Lewis Hamilton. In the end, he only conceded 7 points as he finished right behind him after a fantastic comeback in the last four laps.
(At the beginning) it was difficult to choose whether to go back to the pits or not. But at one point the track became very slippery and we decided to go back to the pits at the right time because if I had pitted one lap earlier, I would have destroyed my intermediate tires in the last sector (which was still dry at that time, editor’s note). Starting last and finishing second is very good, especially since the race itself was difficult because it was hard to overtake and so when you were stuck it was easy to damage your tires. Luckily, the rain helped us to gain these extra positions [Editor’s note: he was 7th before the rain came].
» With the penalty we received, we really limited the damage by only losing one position. When I woke up this morning, I really didn’t expect this result, especially since it’s not easy to avoid collisions starting from the back of the pack with other cars fighting each other at the start and throughout the first relay of the race. The team managed all of this perfectly and the crucial pit stop to switch to intermediate tires worked.
Max Verstappen lost the championship lead here but plans to regain it at the next Grand Prix in Turkey in two weeks.
