Max Verstappen has revealed just some of the challenges he faced en route to what was an “unexpected” victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Following a difficult qualifying, which left both Red Bull drivers bickering over the radio, expectations were low for the race their home circuit. However, the stars aligned and as others faltered around him, the Dutchman was left to take a fourth Formula 1 win.
For the 20-year-old it was also a sense of vindication after a tough first third of the season marred by incidents and came with the added bonus of a large ‘orange army’ watching on in Spielberg.
“It’s amazing to win with Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring,” he stated. “So many Dutch fans around here, it’s incredible.
“I don’t think I could have chosen a better Grand Prix to do it! It was also very unexpected and that makes it even better.”
The big twist that moved the race in his favour was Mercedes’ decision not to pit Lewis Hamilton under an early Virtual Safety Car, ironically called to clear his stricken teammate Valtteri Bottas.
That was when both Red Bulls and both Ferraris decided to double stack with Verstappen coming out ahead and later inheriting the lead.
There was still plenty of work to do for the No.33 though, as teammate Daniel Ricciardo suffered severe blistering on his Soft tyres taking him out of the fight and Max had to adapt to avoid a similar fate.
“It was tougher than maybe it looked like because I just had to be on top of my tyres,” he explained. “I tried to do my lap times but I knew Kimi was two or three tenths faster at one point. Then traffic was also coming in so I was trying not to lose too much time.
“I was just driving around the blisters, they were starting to open up, but I was just managing it especially in the fast corners. We managed to hang on until the end.”
The result also sees Verstappen jump upto fifth in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and just three points behind teammate Ricciardo.
“It was always the aim, to have good results,” he said. “Initially it wasn’t happening, but we never gave up and we’re on a good run now.
“I needed to catch up with the points, so today was definitely a very good day for me,” he said. “I hope we can continue with this.
“We’ll see. I think after Silverstone we start to go into a few tracks – especially Hungary – that’s a track where we should aim for. We never give up!”