Verstappen: “The team stopped me at the right time”

Max Verstappen was not lucky enough to be able to fight for victory at the Singapore GP. Starting in 4th position on the grid, the Dutchman managed to take the advantage over Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) in the pit stop game to secure his 28th podium in F1, his 6th of the season.

“The race went pretty well, commented the Dutchman. The cars were close together. I suffered a bit with my tires, but Charles (Leclerc) had a very conservative pace and the team stopped me at the right time to bring me out in front of Lewis. It was then necessary to preserve the tires until the finish, which was all the more complicated with the safety cars. This podium satisfies me because it's always difficult to overtake here. »

If Max Verstappen was never really able to threaten the Ferrari, on the other hand, he had to fight to maintain his 3rd place against the championship leader's Mercedes.

“I had to push hard to resist Lewis and I stayed hard until the checkered flag. It's perhaps not our best result, but it's still good to take. It's true that we came here with better ambitions, but it's good to take given the pace of our opponents. Lewis put pressure on me in the last laps with his tires in better condition, but fortunately I managed to hold on,” he added.

Max Verstappen finds himself in 4th place in the championship tied on points with Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) before the Russian GP in Sochi next weekend.

Discover the analysis of the Singapore GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2235 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.