Max Verstappen has shared his experience after the incident with Lewis Hamilton in the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver finished second, behind Kimi Antonelli, although he acknowledges that his result could have been quite different had he not given up his position to the Briton.
Verstappen was involved in a controversial moment where his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, asked him to return the place to Hamilton. He understood that if he didn’t, he could have been penalized with a time penalty: ‘If I hadn’t done it, I would have surely received a penalty. There was no possibility,’ stated the Dutch driver.
However, Verstappen believes he acted correctly, arguing that Hamilton lost control of his vehicle when passing over the curb, which forced him to leave the track to avoid a collision. ‘I would have had damage if I had stayed on track. Therefore, winning would also have been impossible. It’s that simple,’ he said.
After the race, the driver also stated that, despite not having the pace of the winner, he took advantage of the circumstances to score important points: ‘We maximized the result and, perhaps, we had a bit of luck with Lando Norris’s inconvenience, which prevented him from entering the pit during the VSC.’ While he is satisfied with the result, he is aware that his team needs to improve overall performance to compete for victory.
Finally, Verstappen acknowledged that Red Bull currently lacks the necessary speed to fight for the top spots consistently. ‘Even though I was close to Antonelli for a few laps, I actually had no chance against him,’ concluded the driver while the team is already starting to think about future developments for the 2027 car.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
