F1 | Spanish GP | "I Tried Everything I Could Today" Says Verstappen After Taking Second In Barcelona Battle
After losing a close tactical fight with Mercedes' race winner Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen had to settle for second place and a bonus point for fastest lap making it podium number 46 for his career.
Max Verstappen made a brilliant start from second on the grid behind the Mercedes driver, drawing alongside Hamilton on the long run to turn one. As they turned in, the Dutch driver got a nose ahead, and he swept into the lead.
Verstappen pushed Hamilton wide to take the lead, and as he recovered, the Mercedes driver held up teammate Valtteri Bottas, allowing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to sneak past and take third.
At the front, Verstappen was keeping a close eye on Hamilton, despite the fact that the time difference between them was a hair's breadth. However, at the end of lap 42, Hamilton arrowed into the pit lane and replaced his medium tyres with a second pair.
With the race now out of reach for the Red Bull driver, the team pitted him at the end of lap 60 for a new set of soft tyres, and on lap 62, he set a lap of 1:18.149 to earn the fastest lap point.
According to the Dutchman, "I tried everything I could today and took the lead at Turn 1 but from there we were just lacking a bit of pace to Mercedes. Of course we wanted to win but I cannot feel too disappointed as I did everything I could out there and maximized the opportunities. Even if we had looked at another strategy and done a two stop and pitted before them, we wouldn’t have made the time up as they were just faster than us."
He continues, "I know how fast I can go and where the limit of the car is and when they can do a free stop behind it is easy for them to do a different strategy."
To add, "I pretty much knew that when he pitted for the second time that he would come back at me on the new tyres a bit like Hungary 2019 and although I did everything I could I was a bit of a sitting duck. The pace difference on the tyres made it an easy pass for Lewis and then I was able to at least keep second place and take Fastest Lap."
The Red Bull driver concludes, "It was just a day where we lacked a bit of pace and second was the best result possible so now we need to look at why they seem to have jumped ahead a bit in terms of race pace.”
With Spanish Grand Prix behind them, it's all about Monaco. Time for work at the factory and continuing to find more success to catch up to Mercedes.
