Pole wouldn’t have stopped Lewis Hamilton from passing me in Portimao: Max Verstappen


Pole wouldn’t have stopped Lewis Hamilton from passing me in Portimao: Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton once again proved his mettle by emerging victorious with shear dominance over his peers and most importantly Max Verstappen in the Portuguese Grand Prix yesterday. The biggest observation from the 2021 Portuguese GP was the pace differential between Mercedes and Red Bull.  

ADVERTISEMENT

Title rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, finished in the top two places yet again with the former pipping the latter for the win. 

What did Max Verstappen say? 

The Dutchman does not believe that he would have kept a Mercedes car behind him even then. It is because he feels the RB16B lacked a “little bit of grip, little bit of top speed” compared to Mercedes’ W12. 

“I think once Lewis Hamilton would have passed Valtteri, then he would have come at me anyway. So, I am not sure if I could have kept him behind,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the race. 

ADVERTISEMENT

As for him chasing the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton is out of question. Even though he did pass Hamilton on the opening stages of the race, he simply couldn’t keep up – 

“I jumped Lewis on the re-start and then trying to put pressure on Valtteri Bottas because he was struggling for grip. And still I couldn’t pass him.” 

He admitted that they were “just not being able to put the pressure on them really.” So, back to the drawing board for the Red Bull engineers in a bid to improve their race pace. 

Also read: Portuguese GP: Nico Rosberg exposes Max Verstappen’s costly error against Lewis…

ADVERTISEMENT