Verstappen insists latest victory was 'really difficult'
It looked pretty easy for him in Canada when viewed from outside the cockpit, as Max Verstappen romped to his sixth win of the season - his 41st career victory equalling the total number of wins notched up by the late, great Ayrton Senna.
But Verstappen insisted that it had been a very different experience from the behind the wheel, explaining that his latest success had been far from straightforward no matter how it might have looked.
“It was very cold today compared to Friday and we were sliding around quite a bit," he told the media in parc ferme after the finish.
“It was not a very straightforward race because the tyres were not really getting in their window,” he explained.
"It was really difficult to just keep the grip and the temperature in the tyres, because the grip was disappearing very quickly. That’s why maybe the gap was not that big, but we had a few safety cars here and there."
The "not that big gap" Verstappen mentioned was almost ten seconds over Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who joined him on the podium. In anyone else's book, that would have been a romp - but not for Max.
He said he wasn't surprised by Aston Martin and Mercedes getting closer and closer every race. “I expected more or less what we had today,” he acknowledged. "But overall we won, that’s the most important [thing]."
The biggest threat to his victory today came when he got a bit too close ot the local wildlife. “I think I hit a bird,” Verstappen told his team over the radio midway through the race. The bird's medical condition is currently unknown.
Equalling Senna's career record of F1 race wins while still only 25 and after just 171 Grand Prix starts is one thing, but today's victory also gave Red Bull its own remarkable team milestone.
“To today win the 100th Grand Prix for the team, that’s incredible. It’s amazing!” said Verstappen, who has now opened up a 69 point advantage over Sergio Perez in the drivers championship after just eight races in 2023.
“I never expected to be on these kind of numbers myself as well," he said. "So we keep enjoying, we keep working hard. But today has been a great day again.”
Unfortunately it was another subdued day for Perez, who had a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday leaving him starting in P12 today.
The team tried putting him on a single-stopper strategy with a long first stint on hard tyres, but this was neutralised by the two Ferraris starting ahead of him, also one-stopping, but able to make their medium tyres last longer.
However the Mexican did have the satisfaction of making an extra stop three laps from the finish to switch to soft tyres and pick up the bonus point for setting the fastest lap of the afternoon.
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