Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took victory at the Belgian Grand Prix, recovering from an engine replacement penalty that saw him start fourteenth. A masterful charge through the field saw him finish the race nearly eighteen seconds ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez in second place.
Verstappen said that the result was not without difficulty, as he had to be careful to not get tangled up in the first lap incidents. From there, he said that he was able to gain positions with strategic overtakes and good tyre management.
“This whole weekend has been incredible. It’s never easy though, it was quite a hectic first lap staying out of trouble, so many things were happening in front of me and everyone was trying to maintain their spot. After the safety car and when it had all calmed down, we made our way forward by picking the right places to overtake and we could look after our tyres.”
Looking ahead to his home race and beyond, Verstappen said that finishing every race strong will be key, even if the team doesn’t win every weekend– they do, however, want to strive for every victory possible.
“Now we need to keep on working hard and focus on each race ahead of us. We know that we have to finish every race, we don’t need to win every race but we want to as a Team. Let’s see what we can do in Zandvoort.”
“I need to be at a better level for Zandvoort and Monza” – Sergio Perez
Finishing second behind his team-mate, Perez said that he was proud of the team’s 1-2 result, but found himself baffled by the performance advantage Verstappen had on race day. He said that he will review where he “lost out” in Spa and find ways to narrow this gap as the season continues.
“It is a great weekend for the Team and I am very pleased with that because we have been working so hard. Max was on another planet today and so quick, I want to understand my race pace and where I lost out to him, I am aware of the gap and I want to come back stronger.”
Perez said that his start was “really bad”, having lost out on his chance to challenge pole-sitter Carlos Sainz for position off the line and losing positions to competitors behind. He said, however, that he was ultimately able to recover from the misstep.
“I had a really bad start but luckily I was able to rectify it. I went into a lot of wheel spin as soon as I released the clutch and couldn’t get any traction, especially when I went into second gear, it meant I lost a lot of positions.”
He also said that the initial stage of his race left something to be desired– a determining factor in a race where he felt that he didn’t perform at the level he wanted to. He said that he wants to be “even stronger” than in this weekend’s showing at the upcoming Dutch Grand Prix.
“I think my first stint wasn’t very strong and that really made a difference and determined a lot of my race. I need to be at a better level for Zandvoort and Monza. There is plenty to look at and hopefully I go into next weekend even stronger, I think things will be a lot closer there so I am looking forward to it massively. We are going to push really hard.”
