The Imola GP ends with Max Verstappen who conquers the victory, the third consecutive on the Italian circuit. This, however, has had to be worked out since the beginning of the weekend. Then, a ride masterpiece in qualification allowed him to secure the pole which was converted into first position also in the race.
Verstappen's immediate words: "I pushed from the start of the race"
In the classic post-race interviews, Verstappen underlined how it was a grand prix different from the others. In fact, right from the start he had to to push to move away from Leclerc and Norris: “I had to push throughout the race to try to create an advantage. The medium stint was the best, we were probably the strongest at that time. With the hard ones, however, we struggled more: the last 15 laps I had no grip anymore. I saw Lando approaching – continued the Dutchman talking about the last laps – at that moment I had to push hard even though the tires were finished. That's the worst feeling, but in the end I am very happy to have won this race".
Verstappen, Imola GP: “We changed a lot before qualifying”
In the last part of the interview Max explained the various problems he experienced during the weekend. As he himself explained, the mechanics had to before qualifying work hard to fix the car's imperfections: “During the weekend we had to make some changes to fix various problems. We didn't have much information on the race pace, especially on Bianca. This is probably why we suffered in that phase of the race. But in the end we took pole and managed to win and for this I'm happy."
Another victory for Verstappen, but this race underlined how big the gaps are between the teams decreased.
ARTICLE BY FRANCESCO ORLANDO
Statements: F1
