Max Verstappen produced yet another dominant performance at the Spanish Grand Prix this past weekend as he claimed the Grand Slam. While the Dutchman did not face any threat throughout the race from any of his competitors, he did still have a nervy moment.
Verstappen’s edgy moment came after he received the black and white flag for exceeding track limits on three occasions. Since any subsequent warning would have resulted in him getting a five-second penalty, his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, advised him against going for the fastest lap.
Max wanted that fastest lap.. 😅. Yeah yeah#F1 #MaxVerstappen #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/aw8btJvZYz
— Racing (Commentary) (@Racingnews2015) June 5, 2023
Lambiase had advised Verstappen to just bring the car home by ensuring that he kept it inside the white lines. However, since the cocky Dutchman was confident that he could claim the fastest lap without any trouble, he chose to ignore team orders.
“They don’t know how much pace I have“: Max Verstappen
After grabbing his third consecutive race win, Max Verstappen explained the moment when he ignored team orders. The 25-year-old said (as quoted by the Spanish GP F1 Nation podcast), “They don’t know how much pace I have in the car when they tell me that this is the fastest lap. Don’t go for it“.
He then added, “I knew I could do it. Just had to keep it within the white lines“. After explaining why he chose to ignore team orders, Verstappen added that he and the team can now laugh about this moment. He added that he had already joked about the same with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.
In the same interview, Verstappen also explained why he was having difficulty keeping the car within track limits. The 25-year-old said that “it happens sometimes” that drivers struggle more on certain tracks and on certain tire compounds.
Horner was not too pleased with Verstappen for ignoring team orders
While Max Verstappen said that the Red Bull team can now perhaps joke about him exceeding track limits, Christian Horner did not seem too pleased with this incident. In an interview with Sky Sports F1 after the Spanish Grand Prix, the 49-year-old acknowledged that discussions will be held about the same with the Dutchman.
Horner believes that the best the team can do in such a situation is to pass information to the drivers. And then it is in the hands of the drivers what they choose to do with the information they receive.
