Verstappen praised Red Bull for having turned their fortunes around after a difficult weekend in Sakhir
Despite having received a five-second penalty for his manoeuvre at the start, Max Verstappen praised Red Bull for having turned their fortunes around after a difficult weekend in Sakhir.
Max Verstappen started from the pole position after having delivered an eye-catching performance in Saturday’s qualifying session. However, the Dutchman launched off the line well, but so did Oscar Piastri, and the pair went wheel-to-wheel into the first corner before Verstappen cut across the apex.
The reigning champion managed to hold on to the lead, but the stewards judged that he left the track and gained a lasting advantage by taking to the run-off area on the outside of the first corner. The Dutchman received a five-second penalty for his manoeuvre.
The Dutchman led until the pit stops, serving that penalty costing him a place to Piastri. From there, he couldn’t get close enough to put Piastri under any significant pressure. However, considering McLaren’s pace advantage across the practice session, it was a brilliant effort from Verstappen to finish just 2.8 seconds behind the Aussie despite his five-second time penalty.
Commenting on his race, Verstappen noted: “Overall, it was a very promising race. We were a bit unfortunate with the penalty, but besides that the car was strong. We had a lot of difficulties on Friday with our tyre management, so to have such a positive Saturday and Sunday meant that we really improved the car a lot.
"I was positively surprised to see how competitive we were on the mediums. I, of course had to try and open up a gap, but to actually pull away from the cars behind was nice. Afterwards on the hards, it took a bit of time before I felt fully comfortable and we were getting a bit of understeer in the car."
Verstappen was left to praise Red Bull for having made inroads after their troublesome weekend in Bahrain.
"Despite everything in the race, getting P2 quite close behind Oscar was overall a positive weekend for us. Of course, on tracks with higher degradation we still have more work to do, but we did well today with the set up, the car went well and we had really good race pace.
"Especially after Bahrain, this was a good weekend to finish off the triple header and we just need to keep working and be as consistent as possible. It really has been a good and positive race and it is promising for the races ahead," said Verstappen.
