Verstappen: “I gave everything to reduce the gap”

After being chased by a black cat in the first half of the season, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) is going through a prosperous period. The victory in Sepang (Malaysia) was followed by a podium in Suzuka (Japan), on the heels of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Qualified on the second row of the grid, the Dutchman had specially adjusted his car for racing, with pointed ailerons for reinforced support. A strategy that paid off, since the young twenty-year-old set faster times than his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, with less support. The Red Bull is comfortable in the hot track conditions, and the mild race weather helped Max Verstappen keep the car of leader Lewis Hamilton in his sights until the final laps. “I think we had a really good pace.”, He explains. “During the last two or three laps, I gave everything to reduce the gap. But here it is very difficult to overtake. »

At this moment, Max Verstappen was only a few tenths behind the Mercedes. “I could see from my cockpit that Lewis was managing the degradation of his tires. Plus, with the traffic in front of him, it seemed like it made it more difficult for him to follow cars than in my case. So I got closer, but when you do this maneuver, you automatically lose support. I couldn't really attack him anymore, but at least I tried. »

This result fills Jos Verstappen’s son with optimism. It is proof of the progress made in Milton Keynes (England) to fill the performance gap with the Silver Arrows, but also the Ferrari. " It's a very good day. The pace shown is very promising. I think Lewis was slightly faster, but after the pit stop I had a good balance with my soft tires. This helped me keep the gap to around three seconds. I wasn't trying to get any closer because I ran the risk of damaging my front tires, even though I was going to need them for the final.", delivers Max Verstappen.

Precisely, while he had returned to the rear wing of the Mercedes, Max Verstappen had to scrape with two latecomers (Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa). “Of course, that didn’t help.” he acknowledges. “But in the end, even without them I wouldn’t have passed Lewis. It was when he was stuck that I could try something, but as soon as he passed these competitors, it was over. »

Discover the analysis of the Japanese GP carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2135 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.