Verstappen on strategic call to stay out "Quite a sensible call'
F1 News
- Savannah Lenz
Max Verstappen raced a phenomenal race and finished second at the Australian Grand prix. He was able to keep up with McLaren and Norris despite not having the advantage of pace. When asked about his decision to stay out when others pitted, he reflected.
Verstappen said, “Two more laps! We were on the Medium, and of course, you never know how that's going to work out. I thought it was quite a sensible call with 15, 16, or 20 laps to go when the Safety Car came out.”
'We had to Box'
He continued, “Then, it started to rain. I saw them go off in front of me, kept it clean, and when I saw Oscar rejoining, I thought, "Well, let's stay out," because it was only those three corners. The rest was still dry. When I continued, basically, the first two sectors were fine – it was just if I could survive the final sector. I think that lap I did was okay. If there wasn't much more rain coming, I thought it could work.”
Unfortunately for Verstappen, more rain did end up coming. “You also have to factor in that even if they caught me on an Inter, they’d have to box again for slicks, if it’s not going to rain anymore. So, it was fine. I thought, "Yeah, we'll do another lap," but then, unfortunately, on that lap, the first sector was still okay-ish, but in Sector 2, it started to rain a bit too much, and we had to box.”
Despite this, he managed to get back into his position from before. He said, “In hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered. If I’d boxed with Lando, it would have been P2. If I’d boxed the next lap, it would have been P2 and the lap that I did box, I was also P2. So, we tried something else—it might have worked. In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine."
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