Max Verstappen says the way his weekend panned out at the Austrian Grand Prix was unexpected after he dominated both the sprint and main race on Sunday.
Red Bull has won every race so far but saw Ferrari take pole position at the previous sprint in Azerbaijan and then Verstappen win by his smallest margin in Canada last time out. With changeable conditions all weekend at the Red Bull Ring there were a number of hurdles but Verstappen took pole position twice and won both races, adding the fastest lap for maximum points.
“It’s been a really incredible weekend, something I didn’t expect,” Verstappen said. “With the sprint format, it’s normally a bit more chaotic to get on top of everything. But I think we did everything well as a team today with the strategy, the pit stops — everything was smooth. Out there on the track, we just had a very quick car and I felt comfortable in the car. And we could do everything we wanted like we planned it.”
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The only thing Verstappen admits was unplanned was his late pit stop for soft tires to set the fastest lap on the final lap, only starting that attempt with a two-second lead over Charles Leclerc.
“To me, not (a risk), but to the team, I think they were a little bit more nervous. I saw the gap, and I was like, ‘We have to pit.’ I want to go for the fastest lap when you have the opportunity, and that’s what we did at the end … From the outside, maybe it looks like a big risk. But in the car for me, it didn’t feel like a risk at all.”
Verstappen says the 24-second advantage he had before that late pit stop shows he was right in refuting that Red Bull’s rivals had closed the gap in Montreal two weeks ago.
“Exactly, I loved all the articles about it! Some weekends they work a bit better for you, some don’t,” he said. “For me, Montreal wasn’t that fantastic in the race from our side, and here, I think we did a really good job. Naturally, the gap is a bit bigger.”