Max Verstappen: We won, and that’s the most important thing!

Max Verstappen won the race in Melbourne, where again no one could match Red Bull in terms of speed, allowing him to recover after a poor start.

Max Verstappen: “It wasn’t that easy, because the start wasn’t that good, so in the first lap I preferred to be careful. I had a lot to lose, but also a lot to gain.

I think the car allowed me to keep a good pace after that, that was immediately apparent. I was driving really fast and just waiting to use DRS to get a chance to overtake.

As for the red flags, in the first case, in my opinion, it was possible to do without them, but what happened in the second case, I do not understand at all. There was confusion, but we overcame everything, the car was fast and we won, and of course that’s the most important thing!

Immediately after the start there was a sharp moment with Lewis, but I just tried to avoid contact, because the rules clearly state what you can do when you go out, but this rule is not followed. Nevertheless, everything is fine, and thanks to our pace we were at least able to overtake Mercedes.

Then, later in the race, there was an episode where I was off track, but in my opinion I was doing the city a favor by mowing the grass! (laughs) Now they don’t have to do it in that place. Overall I locked up the brakes a bit there and damaged the tyres, but that’s okay because we had a big advantage.

It’s great to win in Melbourne – I won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time and the team hasn’t won here for a long time, so I’m really pleased. And I also want to thank all the fans for their support, because they had to spend the whole day in the stands.”