"I felt unstoppable" at Sao Paulo, claims Verstappen
On the back of his sensational victory at yesterday's Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Max Verstappen insisted that he felt unstoppable in the tricky, rainy conditions in last Sunday's 69-lap race in Brazil.
Havin shown encouraging pace in Sunday's early qualifying, Max Verstappen only qualified 12th after being unable to finish his Q2 lap due to red flags. As a result of his grid drop penalty, he was demoted to P17 on the grid. The Dutch driver had a brilliant getaway, picking up a handful of places on the first lap alone. From there he displayed enormous pace, proving particularly strong and comfortable under breaking.
He managed to climb through the field, but he got stuck behind the trio of Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc. He stayed out under the VSC while his direct rivals pitted. Although it could have been disastrous for Verstappen, but a red flag followed soon after which meant he was able to get a free change of tyres in the pit lane.
After the race was restarted, the reigning champion found himself in second spot. Just a lap later, he overtook Alpine driver Ocon on track and disappeared up the road for a famous win, and his first Grand prix victory since June.
“Today was honestly incredible. I am super proud to win here in Brazil as it is a special place for me, but also because we started from P17. I firstly want to say a big thank you to the Team: they did an amazing job, made all the right calls and were incredibly calm.
"We had a really good start and made some good overtakes and made the right decision to stay out before the red flag. I always feel confident in the wet and driving in these kind of conditions, but today the car gave me confidence to go for it. It felt really good to drive and was fast so I felt unstoppable today.
"It was definitely an emotional win; I was really motivated and put everything into this race and I surprised myself today as I wasn’t expecting to finish in P1. This was a really strong result for us today and I'm really proud. Simply Lovely."
His team-mate Sergio Perez endured a tough qualifying, failing to make it out of Q2. As a result, the Mexican started from P12 on the grid which was effectively an eleventh spot after Alexander Albon was unable to start due to heavy damage to his Williams.
The race started badly for Perez as he spun early on which dropped him back. He recovered to the fringes of the points, but lost out battling Lawson and wound up dropping behind Hamilton.
The Mexican commented: “It was a mixed weekend and we missed out on some luck today. Our tyres were very cold at the start which limited us and then we pitted just before the red flag, we were on the wrong side of things from the start.
"We had some good battles out there but it was quite difficult to pass. The conditions were mixed all day with the rain coming and going throughout the session and it was also strange to do qualifying and the race in the same day.
"I’m glad we were able to race today and for the fans to be able to see track action as it is a very passionate crowd here. A big congrats to Max, he was strong all weekend and really charged through the field today, it is a great result for the Team. It is the end of a triple header and was probably our most competitive weekend as a Team in a while. Hopefully the final three races will be positive for our Championship fight."
