Max Verstappen finished the Belgian GP on Sunday (19) in third place and gave a positive assessment of Red Bull’s performance at Spa-Francorchamps. The four-time world champion started second but lost ground during the Virtual Safety Car period and crossed the finish line behind Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).
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After the race, the four-time champion highlighted that the team had a consistent weekend and that the RB22 showed good performance from the start. Despite difficulties in the second stint with hard tires, the Dutchman considered the podium a good result: “Yes, probably. Overall, the weekend for us was quite smooth. The car was already in a decent window from the start, so I think that helps a lot. To be honest, today we had a bit of bad luck with the VSC, and I could have fought with Charles, but the second stint was a bit worse than I expected.”
“I think the balance wasn’t where I wanted it for a good part of this stint, so I lost a lot of time in the first half of it. But for us, being on the podium here was a good result,” Verstappen explained.
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The driver also commented on the first lap battle, when he overtook Kimi Antonelli at the famous Eau Rouge corner but ended up losing positions shortly after. According to the Dutchman, the energy management of the current Formula 1 cars was decisive: “Clearly, I overused the battery from Turn 1 to Turn 2! Then I went through Eau Rouge, looked at my battery status and thought: ‘Well, this is going to be a tough climb to Les Combes.’”
“I expected Kimi to pass, and then I looked in my mirror and saw a red rocket coming. I thought: ‘Ah, I’ll keep my line because if I move here, we’re going to have a plane crash.’ So, it was pretty incredible, the differences,” Verstappen concluded.
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