“Max Verstappen is starting to understand”— Nico Rosberg feels that now the Dutchman knows how hard it is to beat Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen, despite trying hard, couldn’t defeat Lewis Hamilton for the Portuguese Grand Prix win. Several factors to his defeat, but Hamilton being an ace driver, was the biggest one.
Nico Rosberg, who used to be Hamilton’s biggest arch-nemesis, said after the race that maybe now Verstappen realizes that how hard it is to defeat Hamilton.
“What a phenomenal race by Lewis,” says Hamilton’s former team-mate and title rival on Sky F1. “I’m a bit amused because Max Verstappen is starting to understand better and better how good Lewis Hamilton is.”
“He needs to do everything perfect to beat him in the championship and at the moment it’s 2-1 to Lewis,” he added. Meanwhile, Hamilton thought that this win was not an easy one.
The fight for the title is stiff.
Hamilton so far is leading the points table during all three Grand Prix, though he only has a marginal edge over Verstappen that could be removed in a single race.
Red Bull didn’t look at its best in Portugal, with both drivers struggling on the grip, and made several errors which eventually punished them against non-merciful Mercedes.
Valtteri Bottas managed to hold on to the P3 position, as Perez had to opt for a tyre change that gave a significant advantage to the Finn. In the reverse situation, Perez failed to capitalize and remained a few seconds behind Bottas,
At the end, when the positions were confirmed, both drivers went into pitlane along with Verstappen to fight for the fastest lap, which could have given awarded them a point.
Initially, Verstappen got that, but he was spotted violating the track limit, giving that point to Bottas.