P3 was all Max Verstappen could achieve in what he described as a “boring” Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver held off the rocket Renault of Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap at Spa-Francorchamps, but once clear in third, there was nothing he could do to challenge the superiority of Mercedes.
“To be honest, it was pretty boring. There wasn’t much to do,” he told Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle in parc ferme.
“I couldn’t keep up with them [Mercedes] when they started pushing. I ran out of tyres at the end of the race, so in the last eight laps, we mainly saved the front tyres.
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‘It was not really enjoyable out there. On the medium, I didn’t really have a lot of grip and on the hard tyre, yeah, initially I was trying to put a bit of pressure on Valtteri (Bottas) but they told him to speed up and I couldn’t keep up. So, yeah bit lonely.”
As Verstappen reported increasing vibrations on his front-right tyre it was pondered whether Red Bull might gamble a two-stop strategy.
However, the Dutchman admits he was concerned over the pace of Ricciardo in fourth, who finished just 3.4s behind his former teammate over the finish line.
“I wasn’t sure if it was easy to overtake him at their top speed, so I wanted to stay out,” Max confirmed.
“I think I was very close to a puncture but more was not possible today. It was not the most satisfying P3 but it is better than nothing.
“We had no tyres left and I was not taking any risks. We maximised what we could.”
