“If I hadn’t, he would have just driven off”– Max Verstappen on his overtake on Lewis Hamilton in Spain

“If I hadn’t, he would have just driven off”– Max Verstappen claims that Lewis Hamilton would have cruised away if he hadn’t overtaken him.

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are amidst a hectic rivalry this year, and every mistake would be expensive to either of them; hence it is important to remain on their toes.

Verstappen talked about his recent performance in Spain and claims that despite losing to Mercedes, it was a good result, as it still keeps them near the Brackley based team.

“I feel good about it, but as a team it wasn’t the smoothest weekend, we definitely lacked pace throughout the race,” Verstappen said in a Red Bull Racing press release.

“It is what it is and we still secured second place and good points for the Team. It’s still early in the season so we just have to make sure that we keep pushing and applying the pressure and start winning some more races.”

Lewis Hamilton would have driven off.

Verstappen believes that making the most out of every situation is important and claims that hadn’t he overtaken Hamilton at the turn 1, things would have been difficult for his team.

“I think our tyre degradation but also the general pace of the car wasn’t good enough to really challenge Mercedes in Barcelona. I got ahead of Lewis in Turn 1 but if I hadn’t, he would have just driven off,” Verstappen continued.

“Leading the race for so long made it look tougher to lose out on the win. We just need to keep on improving,” said Verstappen. In the end, Hamilton bagged the win after using a two-stop strategy, to which Verstappen had no response.

Now, Red Bull would be seeking a win in Monaco, where overtaking is a bit tough, and Red Bull can ace in qualifying.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More