Max Verstappen said his clash with Esteban Ocon, who cost him the victory in Brazil twelve months ago, was karma for his father Jos’ misdemeanor on the same route in 2001 the victory was “redemption” …
Verstappen seemed like the driver to beat all weekend. The Dutchman delivered superlatives on Saturday and took the second pole position of his career. On race day he took control of the race from the front, responded to Lewis Hamilton’s undercut by overtaking him not once but twice on the track, responded well to avoid a collision with Robert Kubica in the pit lane, and held on the restarts the nerve to win his third win of the season.
“It’s a relief for Max,” said Horner. “It was a great drive for him and Lewis to overtake, he did it the hard way – overtaken twice, the strategy was daring. Fantastic work from him today. “
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Red Bull decided to pit Verstappen during the second safety car, which left him behind Hamilton, who decided not to follow suit. That meant he had to overtake the Brit for a second time, but he made no mistake.
“All praise to Hannah [Schmitz, Red Bull’s senior strategy engineer] today, ”said Horner. “She offered the strategy, her recommendation was to pit. It was a brave choice because we knew he would [Lewis] would do the opposite and it was the aggressive choice and it worked.
BRAZILIAN GP: Verstappen overtakes Hamilton in a fantastic restart of the race
“That’s why I sent her up [to the podium] today. She is a working mother, drives ridiculous hours to get to work, gives everything and that is real teamwork.
“It was a fantastic race. Max didn’t want to give up this victory today. We were compromised on the in-round with the Williams and the unsafe release that happened.
“We benefited from the new tires and he used them in the out lap and was able to quickly take the lead again and then control the race again.”
Verstappen added, “Lewis was very fast so I had to keep pushing and strategy all the time. He used to pits again and again, so we really had to be at the top during our pit stops.
“Two times we had a good move with him and that put us in first place the whole time and yes, from then on I was able to control the race with the tires I had. It’s incredible. It was a lot of fun and of course it was a great race. “
READ MORE: DRIVER OF THE DAY – Victorious Verstappen adds Brazil’s fan honor
This marked the first time Verstappen had turned pole position into victory, with the podium being the 30th of his career. This puts him back in third place in the drivers’ standings, eleven points ahead of Charles Leclerc, just one race to go.
Max Verstappen: “Happy that we had a race like this”
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