Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen finished seventh in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, after issues at the start saw the Dutchman get bogged down off the line, allowing advancing drivers to sail straight by him.
“I went into anti-stall at the start. I don’t know what happened there so I have to analyse that.
The bad start hindered the 18-year-old’s race from there on in, as he had to push much harder, which increased his tyre degradation, but the Dutchman was pleased with how the car performed during the final stint of the race.
“After that it was just very difficult, because you have to push harder on the tyres to get past people and that compromises your strategy, but in the end our last stint was very positive. I think we did the best we could with the tyres we had so we can be very happy about that.”
Verstappen had come up against some criticism from fellow drivers following his aggressive blocking methods at the last round in Spa, when attempting to hold off the fastly advancing Scuderia Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, but thankfully there were no such misdemeanours to talk of during his race at Monza.
The Dutchman did make his presence known to Sergio Perez as he overtook the Sahara Force India driver for seventh place at the Ascari chicane, but although the Mexican swerved sharply off track as he saw the Red Bull man coming, there was no issue with the move Verstappen made.
All in all the 18-year-old was pleased to come home with some points at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a track that does not really suit the strengths of the RB12.
Singapore however is a different story, and the Milton Keynes based squad will be hoping for a strong result at what is considered their best chance to possibly get one over on current leaders Mercedes AMG PETRONAS.
“The car behaved very well today even though this track is not our favourite. We’re definitely looking forward to Singapore and hopefully we can put in a strong performance there.”
