Max Verstappen described the range of emotions he felt on
Sunday, from “almost trying to destroy the garage” after qualifying to taking
P1 in Brazil.
An ill-timed stoppage in Q2 meant the Red Bull driver was
unable to progress to Q3, sitting in 12th place at the time the session was
halted and on a flying lap to try and improve his time on an improving track –
with a five-place grid penalty compounding that frustration for Verstappen to
start 17th later in the day.
Max Verstappen explains range of emotions after Brazilian
GP triumph
Verstappen worked
his way up through the field and, having not pitted when the red flag was shown
midway through the race, he was able to change tyres and maintain second place
on the road for the race restart.
Diving past Esteban Ocon for the lead at the second
Safety Car restart, the World Championship leader would go on to set a
succession of fastest laps and eventually win by 19 seconds come the chequered
flag, extending his lead in the standings to 62 points with 86 left available.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted after
the race he couldn’t remember the last time Verstappen had been so “animated”
on the podium, such were his celebrations in victory, and the three-time World
Champion explained that he went from venting his anger to standing on the top
step within a matter of hours on Sunday.
“Yeah, I don’t even know where to start, because my emotions
today have been from almost trying to destroy the garage to winning the race,”
Verstappen admitted after the race.
“I mean, starting P17… I knew that we could have a good
race, but in qualifying, I think it was quite clear that there was only one
line that you could take, so I knew that overtaking was going to be quite
tough.
“But in the race, we had a good start. That helped already.
We had a good first lap, from there, we just picked off a few drivers here and
there.
“Then I got a little bit stuck behind the train of Yuki [Tsunoda], I think. Then we just stayed calm.
.webp)
