The first stroke of brilliance came at the start. After a poor getaway from second on the grid, Max held the outside line through to the Tamburello braking zone. There, he braked much later than Oscar Piastri and managed to slot the RB21 into the chicane ahead of everyone. From that moment on, it was a flawless solo performance to the chequered flag.
“The start wasn’t great, but I kept to the outside, which is usually the normal line, and I thought: ‘Let’s try to stick it out there on the outside.’ And in the end, it worked very well. Then I simply made the most of my pace, which was really good. The car was really strong, we managed the tyres well, and I had excellent pace,” Verstappen said after the race.
On Friday, the RB21 looked to be in serious trouble. But once again, the team managed to completely transform the car and give Max exactly what he needed to unleash his talent when it mattered most.
“Once again, we made a huge improvement from Friday and I’m very satisfied. Then the Virtual Safety Car came at the perfect moment to bring us into the pits and come out in front. On the Hard tyres, our pace was really strong. In fact, after the Safety Car, I restarted very well and managed everything perfectly to take the win.”
“I’m incredibly proud of everyone. It was a very important weekend for us, the car performed incredibly well, and I think everything we did during the race was executed really well.”
Right now, Max is also trying to keep driving even on non-F1 weekends. He did so last weekend at the Nürburgring, behind the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3.
“I love driving, I love racing in F1 and in any kind of car. Next week we’ll have a totally different track in Monaco, and it’ll be very challenging. But for now, I want to enjoy this day and enjoy this win,” concluded the Red Bull Racing driver.
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