“Nothing is lost”– Max Verstappen despite the three-place grid penalty in Sochi

Tanish Chachra | 21/09/2021
"Nothing is lost"– Max Verstappen despite the three-place grid penalty in Sochi

“Nothing is lost”– Max Verstappen remains upbeat despite getting hit by a three-place grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen was held responsible for the collision with Lewis Hamilton in Monza, and the FIA imposed a three-pace grid penalty, which he will have to serve in Russia.

Despite the setback, the Dutchman is upbeat and claims nothing is lost, as he aims to win in Sochi, which is a realistic target if he manages to remain in the second row.

“I think you can reflect all you like but it’s important to look forward and keep pushing,” said Verstappen. “I still believe it was a racing incident, but we have been given a three-place grid penalty and we just have to work with it now.”

“The race in Monza definitely wasn’t our day for many reasons, but now I just plan to look forward to Sochi. The penalty is of course not ideal but nothing is lost, that’s how I look at it.”

“As for the Drivers’ Championship, we still have a lot of races ahead of us and it’s a very tiny margin. We will try and make the most from the weekend and work with the package we have.”

The maiden win in Russia

Apart from Mercedes, no other team has managed to win a Grand Prix in Russia, and Verstappen aims to break that streak by improving his last year’s result, where he finished as a runner-up.

“It was great to finish second there last year in Sochi especially as it has never been a good track for us as a team,” added Verstappen. “We have been more competitive this year and we have a better package at the moment,” he said.

“So it will be interesting to see how competitive we can be there this year. It will be of course completely different to Monza and it looks like there might be some rain this weekend.”

“The track itself and the layout is completely different to the previous races so I’m definitely looking forward to going back there and seeing what we can do.”

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Max Verstappen Red Bull

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.

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