Second place “feels like a victory” for Max Verstappen after almost retiring before the race began in Hungary on Sunday.
Rain an hour before the start had left the track damp as teams prepared for the race, and the Dutchman found out just how tricky the conditions were as he slid off into the barriers at Turn 12 on his lap to the grid.
That triggered a frantic rush to repair the damage, with his front-left suspension the biggest job, but Red Bull managed it, and Verstappen repaid them by coming through from seventh to finish second.
“I thought I was not going to race, so this feels like a victory for me,” he said in parc ferme.
“It was not how I wanted it at the beginning of course, but the mechanics did an amazing job to fix the car.
“I don’t know how they did it – incredible – to pay them back with second place, I was very pleased with that.
“We made the right calls and we had good pace. We just kept doing our own thing and to be able to split the two Mercedes cars is good for us.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed the team was close to parking the car immediately after Verstappen’s off pre-race but praised the speedy job done to repair his RB16.
“Max redeemed himself,” he told Sky Sports. “On the inters on the lap to the grid he did his best to go off, I think he went off three times, and then almost terminally.
When your race might be over before it’s even started ?
But you eventually finish P2 ?#HungarianGP ?? #F1 @Max33Verstappen pic.twitter.com/o9JDpGYUsy
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 19, 2020
“We made a late call after he managed to reverse it out to go to the grid. He got himself well out of shape and it was just so slippy, but he managed to keep it running, reversed it out.
“He was going to come into the pits because he thought it was all over, but we could see from the TV that it was mainly the pushrod and the track rod, so we drove it to the grid.
“The mechanics on that car, all the boys have done an amazing job today, turning that around in 20 minutes – it’s something that would usually take an hour and a half.
“He owes that result to them today. He was very lucky, I think we completed with 25 seconds to go, that’s when the wheel went on.
“The sweat was dripping off the guys, their work was amazing.”
Though Verstappen didn’t have the pace to keep up with winner Lewis Hamilton, he would at least get some redemption on Valtteri Bottas after he avoided handing Mercedes a 1-2 for the second straight weekend.
“You never know. I could see he was catching, like a second a lap,” he said.
“But following here is quite tricky, and we hit some traffic in the last lap in front, which didn’t make it easier for me on the old tyres, but we managed to hang on, and I’m very happy with second.”
