Verstappen and Tsunoda explain what happened at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

23:42, 20 Apr

bySavannah Lenz

Max Verstappen has delved into the details of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in the Red Bull Racing press release. In the press conference and with other media, the Dutch driver did not want to reveal too much, but he has now shared his findings about Sunday night's race.

In the Red Bull Racing press release, Verstappen said, “Overall, it was a very promising race. We were a bit unfortunate with the penalty, but besides that, the car was strong. We had a lot of difficulties on Friday with our tyre management, so to have such a positive Saturday and Sunday meant that we really improved the car a lot."

Verstappen continued, "I was positively surprised to see how competitive we were on the mediums. I, of course, had to try to open up a gap, but to actually pull away from the cars behind was nice. Afterwards, on the hard, it took a bit of time before I felt fully comfortable, and we were getting a bit of understeer in the car. Despite everything in the race, getting P2 quite close behind Oscar was overall a positive weekend for us."

He concluded, "Of course, on tracks with higher degradation, we still have more work to do, but we did well today with the set-up, the car went well, and we had really good race pace. Especially after Bahrain, this was a good weekend to finish off the triple header, and we just need to keep working and be as consistent as possible. It really has been a good and positive race, and it is promising for the races ahead."

Tsunoda is hoping for better results in Miami

Verstappen's teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, did not have as good a race. Tsunoda did not finish his race after a first-lap collision with Alpine's Pierre Gasly. He said, “It was really unfortunate to be involved in a racing incident so early in the race today."

"I was fully in control before the incident. Carlos was also right in front of me, and there was just nowhere for me to go, as it happened at the tightest corner on this track. I did as much as I could to avoid any incidents, but then I unfortunately had rear wing damage, and I couldn’t continue safely in the race. It’s painful to collide with anyone, especially Pierre, as we are friends, and this was not ideal for either of us, as at the end of the day, we are fighting for points and success, and my goal is to achieve as much as possible every weekend."

"He concluded, Every lap is very important to me, to learn something, and to experience the car more. It's a shame that something like this happened at an early stage of the race. The positive from the weekend is that I feel like we have made progress, being in Q3 again, and I feel like my confidence is building more and more. Next, we have some testing in the RB19 before Miami, and then I am excited to go again with the Team and hopefully have a better result and bring home some points."