Albers: 'Mercedes knew after first stop that Lewis wouldn't be in front again'

According to Christijan Albers Max Verstappen is in optimal shape. The Dutchman took pole position on Saturday and managed to turn it into a win on Sunday. For now Mercedes seems to have the faster car, but Albers notes that Verstappen is right on top of his game.

"I thought it was a bit boring because you kind of knew in advance what the outcome would be, despite Lewis fighting back well at the end of the race. Lewis of course had a very good start and Max had a poor start. Then you see that such a race can actually be controlled by Lewis and then Max has every opportunity to do an undercut", Albers starts in the F1-podcast of The Telegraph.

"You are always much faster when you drive out of the pits with new tyres. Mercedes knew of course after that first stop that Lewis would never get in front of Max Verstappen again. They took a new strategy and they went a different way to be able to drive as long as possible, to be able to fight at the end of the race."

Verstappen in optimal form

According to Albers, Mercedes were in a difficult position because they had to wait and see what Red Bull were going to do. "The big problem with Mercedes is, if you start looking at the whole performance, you see that Mercedes basically had a faster car from lap one until the last lap. On the other hand it's also hard to say, because you don't know how much Max held back."

"If you look purely at the results, Mercedes was the faster car. In qualifying, Verstappen was optimal again. It's incredible how Max has been so on top of things lately. It seems like it comes so easily to him and that he is so relaxed", says Albers.