Verstappen: Podium ‘like a victory’ after pre-race crash
Max Verstappen admitted second place in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix “felt like a victory” after he crashed his Red Bull on the way to the grid.
Keen to try and find where the limit was in wet conditions before the race, Verstappen pushed himself too far and ended up in the Turn 12 tyre barrier before the race had begun. Having ripped the front wing off his car and broken the front-left suspension, Verstappen was instructed to go to the grid as planned rather than retire to the pits where a miraculous repair was completed in under 20 minutes, with the wheel going on to
give the Dutchman the green light just 25 seconds before the deadline for the race start.
"It was not how I wanted it in the beginning of course, ending up in the barriers on the laps to the grid," Verstappen said.
"But the mechanics did an amazing job to fix the car. I don't know how they did it, but incredible. "To pay them back with the second place, I was very pleased with that.”
Having laboured to a seventh-place grid spot in qualifying due to a power unit issue, Verstappen was able to put Red Bull’s performance concerns behind them by converting it into a podium finish and splitting the two Mercedes drivers, with Valtteri Bottas falling a lap short of catching Verstappen after choosing to pit an additional third time for fresh tyres.
"I thought I was not going to race, so to be second is like a victory today,” Verstappen added. "The first half was very crucial and from there on, I think we had the right calls, and we had good pace. "We just kept doing our own thing and of course to be able to split the two Mercedes cars is good for us."
The recovery drive went down well with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who paid tribute to the team’s mechanics who managed to turn around what should have been an hour-and-a-half job in just 20 minutes.
“Max redeemed himself,” Horner told Sky Sports. “On the lap to the grid on the inters he did his best to go off, I think he went off three times, then almost terminally. We made a late call after he managed to reverse it out to drive it to the grid.
“He was going to come into the pits because he thought it was all over, but we could see from the TV that it was mainly the push rod.
“The mechanics on that car have done an amazing job today getting that turned around in 20 minutes in something that would usually take an hour and a half to get that result today.
“I think we completed it with 25 seconds to go when the wheel went on, and the sweat was dripping off the guys, looking at them work there was amazing.
“The guys are doing an amazing job at the moment, the amount of specification changes we’ve had this weekend, the all-nighters that went through on Friday night, we were obviously on the ropes in qualifying, and to bounce back and get P2 here to split the Mercedes, I think last night I would have bitten your right arm off for that.”
Verstappen was unable to give anything to take the fight to Lewis Hamilton though, with the six-time world champion in a league of his own to finish almost seven seconds clear of the Red Bull driver after pitting for an extra stop late on just to bag the fastest lap of the race in fresh tyres.
"It was one of my favourite races," said Hamilton. "While I was on my own out there, it was a different kind of challenge. We had great pace, great pit-stops and great strategy. It was perfect to get out on the fresh tyres in the closing laps and get the (fastest lap) bonus point."
The victory gives Hamilton a five-point lead in the world championship standing over Bottas after hitting the summit for the first time this season, with an eight win in the Hungarian Grand Prix putting him level with Michael Schumacher’s tally for the most wins at a single race.
After struggling through the opening race of the season in Austria, Hamilton has bounced back with consecutive wins, and he can match that eight-win haul at Silverstone when the season resumes with the second double-header of 2020 at a circuit where he has already claimed six Grand Prix victories.
"In round one I was hit by multiple different punches that I was not ready for,” Hamilton said. “But I refocused and the last two races have been fantastic. I have been on point this weekend so I need to keep it up."