Verstappen: The first lap was the most important

Max Verstappen took another victory, this time at Red Bull’s home circuit, and emphasized that the weekend went well…

Max Verstappen (1st): “The most important thing was of course the first round. It was necessary to keep the lead and then we could build the race as we needed.

When the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) mode was first introduced, we chose not to pit, so I just followed the original tactic. And it worked! The tires don’t last long on this track and it was important to have every stint perfect – all in all it was a great day!

Before VSC was first introduced I could put quite a big gap in a few laps so I knew I could eventually overtake rivals and bounce back after my pit stop. Therefore, the decision to stick to the original plan was the most correct way forward.

I don’t want to think about the title yet, I’m just enjoying the moment, I like driving this car, I like working with the team. I think we’re doing really well with their duties all weekend. When there’s a sprint on the schedule, the weekend schedule is very tight, there’s a lot of hassle and there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong, but this time everything worked out well.

I’m very happy with how we worked this weekend and now I’m going to prepare for Silverstone!”

Sergio Perez (3rd): “I am very, very satisfied! The weekend was very hard for me, physically I was not in top condition. Thursday I was unwell, I had a high fever and generally I didn’t sleep well these days.

But today we were able to rebound well together with the team, partly due to excellent tactics, but our pace was at a very high level.

Our duel with Carlos Sainz was very exciting, but everything was right. Ferrari is always a pleasure to fight on the track.

I had a rather difficult period, but let’s hope that now everything is behind us, we have recovered our previous form and can show stable results.