Max Verstappen: « It was like driving on ice »
The Dutchman won the Imola Grand Prix on Sunday. His race was one of contrasts: in control at the start, struggling at the end... he was once again challenged by Lando Norris.
Red Bull pilot’s weekend is a bit like the ferris wheel in the middle of the Imola circuit. Ups and downs throughout the weekend, but in the end we always come back to the starting point: Verstappen victorious.
However, this habit is no longer really one, and Lando Norris could once again have deprived his friend of the first place. If Max Verstappen was not worried at the beginning of the race, it was different on the second relay, with the hard tires: “As soon as I switched to the hard tires, it was definitely, I mean, maybe not the first five to ten laps, but after that, I thought, I’m not sure I can go all the way. The tires fell out of the operating window and, yes, it was like driving on ice.”
I wasn’t sure if I could hold onto him.
Beyond the difficulties of the tire operation, Lando Norris was behind him, knife in teeth, pushing like crazy. From eight seconds behind, he came back to seven tenths in about ten laps! Max Verstappen was clearly not confident: “Yes, it was very difficult. I had to take really weird trajectories. But yes, in these last ten laps I was really trying to survive in the corners. Suddenly, Lando really accelerated. So yes, I could see in the mirrors him catching up.”
Fortunately, there were 63 laps and not 64… Lando Norris managed to enter the DRS zone of the Dutchman on the last lap! « I wasn’t sure if I could hold him off, but I was just trying to do my best, pushing as hard as possible with the grip I had. And yeah, there were just enough laps. »
