After losing to Red Bull at the Mexico GP, Mercedes has accused their driver, Max Verstappen, of winning just out of luck.
Max Verstappen made the first turn right and he was leading the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He took the outside line on the lengthy run and braked distinctly later than Valtteri Bottas.
Despite there being a little margin for error, seized control of a race he went on to win easily and moved 19 points clear of Lewis Hamilton at the top of the World Championship.
Later on, Red Bull chief Christian Horner said that it was all a well-practised plan. It was rehearsed by Verstappen during his installation lap on the way to the grid.
Meanwhile, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton cricised Valtteri Bottas of leaving the door open. The seven-time World Champion has subsequently offered support to the Finn via social media.
However, Mercedes motorsport strategy director James Vowles said that there was nothing particularly measured about Verstappen’s move into Turn 1.
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Max Verstappen was hoping for the best
James Vowles analysed Verstappen’s comments and said that it is quite clear he was going in there guessing and hoping for the best and it worked out for him.
Valtteri Bottas gave the impression of wanting to allow Hamilton through on his inside to gift him the lead. If that had worked out, it would have given the Briton a chance to grab a lead in the championship.
Vowles added, “Verstappen’s start being good meant he was alongside Valtteri very, very quickly. The result of that is they ended up three wide incredibly quickly and early on during the run down to Turn 1.
“Now it was just a question of braking. Valtteri wasn’t on the optimal line, nor was Lewis. The grip on the right-hand side of the circuit is slightly worse than where Verstappen was on the racing line.”
“Even so, the differences in braking should have been a few metres, not perhaps the difference that you saw ultimately the drivers braked where they thought they could.”
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