Perfect start for history boy Max
HE only passed his driving test in September but 18-year-old Max Verstappen made F1 history yesterday by becoming the youngest Grand Prix winner.
A sensational Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona saw Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide and crash out on the opening lap, leaving Verstappen – making his debut for Red Bull after being promoted from junior team Toro Rosso a week earlier – to beat Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen by 0.616 seconds.
Verstappen was also the youngest driver to stand on the podium and the first Dutch race winner since the championship started in 1950. “I was targeting a podium but to win straight away is an amazing feeling,” said Verstappen. “My dad helped me a lot to achieve this – this is amazing.”
Four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel, the previous youngest race winner thanks to his 2008 Italian Grand Prix victory for Toro Rosso at the age of 21, was third for Ferrari. Rosberg had his lead trimmed to 39 points, with Raikkonen moving up to second ahead of Hamilton.
The German’s dream of an eighth successive win – and fifth of the season – had disappeared in the gravel on the opening lap as he and Hamilton, the reigning champion, crashed out while battling for the lead.
That looked like being the talking point of the day at a circuit that has seen processional races in the
past, until Verstappen rewrote the script. “I can’t ever remember seeing a debut performance like that,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “The kid has just done an unbelievable job. Max hasn’t put a wheel wrong all weekend. To win the race, I don’t think anyone can have dreamed of that.”
Verstappen just soaked up the moment, lingering on the podium after the Ferrari drivers had gone and holding the winner’s trophy aloft.
And his proud father Jos, who was twice on the podium with Benetton as Michael Schumacher’s team-mate in 1994 and raced against Efk :cXjj`Ô\[1 Raikkonen later in his career, declared it the best day of his life. “This is really something unbelievably special,” he said.
While Red Bull celebrated and Ferrari rescued a race that had looked like being one to forget after Raikkonen and Vettel qualified fifth and sixth, dominant champions Mercedes were licking their self-inflicted wounds.
Mercedes motorsport director Toto Wolff refused to apportion blame.
“From a team’s perspective we’ve looked at the pictures and the data and it’s not clear cut. Nico had a really good turn one and turn two, Lewis tried to dive in, Nico closed the door. I’d say let’s wait and see what the stewards say. It’s not a situation where you can attribute 100 per cent of the blame.”
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