Max Verstappen said he was “lucky – and unlucky” after finishing second behind Lewis Hamilton’s ‘three-wheel’ Mercedes in Sunday’s dramatic British Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver
and his race crew believed they might have had a chance of victory as Hamilton
and his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas both suffered tyre failures in the
closing laps.
But instead of
staying out on his worn set of hard tyres to seek his first win of the season,
Verstappen came in under orders to take a new set of tyres and deliver the
fastest lap of the race.
Bottas had slowed
and pitted on lap 50, gifting second to Verstappen when it was not apparent
that Hamilton, more than half a minute clear, would suffer similar problems en
route to his 87th career victory.
In the end,
Verstappen closed the gap to 5.8 seconds as Hamilton limped across the line and
the Dutchman expressed some frustration on the team radio before reconciling
himself to the runners-up spot.
“We did good, not
bad,” he said. “Good points, good podium. We did well. We should be happy with
second, but when you have this… Anyway, it’s still good.”
After reflecting on
events more carefully, he later said: “I mean, it’s lucky and unlucky, you
know.
“They (Mercedes)
were too quick for us in the race. And, yeah, the tyres at one point they didn’t
look great. With like 10 laps ago, I was already on the radio: ‘guys, you know,
the right front doesn’t look very pretty.’
“Then Valtteri got
a puncture and was back on the radio and they boxed me to go for the fastest
lap. And then, of course, unfortunately Lewis got a puncture himself, but, you
know, I’m very happy with second.”
Red Bull team boss
Christian Horner agreed with Verstappen and revealed that his front left tyre
was almost finished.
“The tyre that has
come off Max’s car has a deep groove,” he said.
“There’s no
guarantee that he would have won the race. Lewis rode his luck and managed to
get the car home.”
