Verstappen: “As if I were driving in fog! »

To complete his second full year within Red Bull in Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen did the show. The Dutchman, who started sixth, distinguished himself with numerous offensive maneuvers, allowing him to recover the last step of the podium on Sunday.

It began with repeated attacks on Esteban Ocon (Racing Point Force India), but the Taurus was handicapped by engine problems. “There was a problempine, this made me lose a few places at the start, says Max Verstappen. A sort of protection mode was triggered, we cut off a sensor and then it went back to normal. »

Back on the attack, the Red Bull then threw itself on Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes). “I made some good overtakes, especially on Valtteri. I don't think he saw me on the inside of the turn, we touched each other, but without too much damage. » The maneuver is in any case beautiful! 

Finally, our offensive pilot was the victim of a rare mishap in the age of technology in F1. “I had difficulty in the last laps because I could no longer see anything. My visor was covered in oil left by Pierre's car (gasly)." In these cases, you should definitely not try to clean the greasy deposits by hand, this spreads the stains. Guess what Max Verstappen did…

“I passed the hand, it made things worse. It's like I'm driving in fog! Fortunately, the tires held up until the end. » This will certainly serve as a lesson to him.

11 podiums and P4 in the Drivers' Championship for @Max33Verstappen and the car 33 crew in 2018! His best season in #F1 so far #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/5TZPXlo2yc

- Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) November 25, 2018

Max Verstappen, thanks to this podium, overtakes Valtteri Bottas in the general classification of Drivers and finishes fourth. He is only two points short of overtaking Kimi Räikkönen in third place.

Find the analysis of the F1 season finale carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2193 of AUTOhebdo, available Monday evening in digital version and Wednesday on newsstands.