Jos Verstappen admits he enjoyed watching his son lap Lewis Hamilton en route to victory at Imola last weekend.
In a dominant performance last Sunday, the reigning world champion rebounded from retirement in Melbourne to claim his second win of 2022 as Red Bull scored only their second one-two finish of the hybrid era.
By contrast, Hamilton spent the race stuck in traffic, eventually finishing 13th, with the moment Verstappen flew by to lap him a symbolic visual of Mercedes’ struggles this season.
“This shows how wrong we’ve got it,” Lewis plainly said when asked about it.
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Max too was largely diplomatic, stating: “I mean, they’ve been slow all year so it’s not really a surprise or I feel happy lapping Lewis compared to anyone else.
“But it is what it is.”
Father Jos though was smiling in the garage…
“Honestly, I did enjoy seeing Max lap Hamilton after everything that happened last year,” he wrote on the Verstappen.com website.
“Hamilton really had a tough time, whereas his teammate George Russell seemed to be more balanced. It’s not often you have the opportunity to lap a Mercedes.”
First Q1 exit since 2017 in Jeddah ✅
First +1 Lap race finish since 2017 at Imola ✅#LewisHamilton ending some very unwanted streaks this season…#F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/E33KaCxKkr— InsideRacing.com (@INSIDERACINGcom) April 25, 2022
Red Bull boss Christian Horner had an accidental slip of the tongue as he backed Hamilton to bounce back from his current low.
“It was obviously one of those things,” he said of Max lapping him.
“At that point, we were looking at the clouds, was the rain going to come in the last part of the race or not, we were more focused on that.
“But he obviously had a horrible weekend but he is still an eight-time… seven-time world champion! I forgot Nico Rosberg won.
“He hasn’t forgotten how to drive in the last four races so at some point they will sort their issues out and he will become a factor.”