Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies highlighted Max Verstappen’s approach to the race start after the Dutchman passed Lando Norris on the first lap to set him up to win last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen started from second place on Saturday evening and Norris defended the inside line hard against the Red Bull driver, before running deep and opening the door for Verstappen to speed past. After the race, Mekies – prior to the disqualification of both McLarens due to technical violations – was full of praise for Verstappen’s approach.
“Lap one, turn 1, he just never gets it wrong, right?” Mekies said. “So that was typical Max, he got it right, had a good start and got Lando. You guys can judge it better than me, but he just never got it wrong.
“From then on, in the early stages of the race, actually George [Russell] could put more pressure on us than we had thought. So George put pressure on us in the right way, which lasted maybe five or ten laps, and then he started to fall, maybe from grit or something else.
“So the race started to get a bit more under control at that stage, when George was a bit outside our DRS. Then there was another critical moment where George pitted, which may or may not have been to cover him. I think it was a bit tricky at that stage because it wasn’t clear how fast he would go with a new set of hard tyres. We decided to stay outside. Max was able to keep pushing and follow George’s pace effectively.”
“Nevertheless, as you saw, eight laps later when we pitted, it was still very, very close between the two, so there was little to separate them. And when I got back on the hard track, I think we had more confidence on the hard track, because we saw that the The tires were in good condition when we took them off the car, and Max was able to push more, and I think he probably even had more speed than what we saw in the car.
“There were a few times in the second stint where we asked him to increase the pace when Lando was pushing, and every time it was necessary he increased the pace.”
Verstappen was able to comfortably pull away from the field in the second half of the race, which Mekies said was an even more impressive achievement considering the unknown factors teams faced in Las Vegas.
“I think all in all it was a masterclass from him, without a doubt,” he said. “During the race weekend no one had the right preparations because the practices were all disrupted by something or other.
“To be so strong on Saturday, in terms of tire degradation, execution and race pace, I think it’s a huge compliment to Max for scoring it again, and to everyone in Milton Keynes and on the track, because there was a lot more. [to handle] than a normal breed. There really were so many factors that we knew would be new for race day.
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