Verstappen takes Ferrari into account: "Will be difficult with the tyres".

F1 News

9 July 2022 at 16:24
  • GPblog.com

On Friday, Max Verstappen narrowly missed out on pole position for the sprint race. Today he managed to turn that result into victory. As a result, the Dutchman takes home eight points. Verstappen did notice that the pace of the Red Bulls and Ferrari was on the same level.

There are many Dutch fans present at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. Verstappen is therefore encouraged a lot. "It was great to see, and there was a lot of smoke at the end. " Verstappen said after the sprint race.

The Red Bull driver is satisfied with the result, but he does expect Ferrari and Red Bull to be evenly matched during Sunday's race. "It was alright, I think it was a decent race. We had good pace at the beginning. I think after that, we were very closely matched. It was good. it was like a sprint should go, quite flat out."

Verstappen: 'In terms of pace we were equal'

Verstappen was able to open up a gap to the rest of the field after the start. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz fought with each other for second position, allowing the Dutchman to pull away. Leclerc eventually couldn't get close to the Red Bull car. Verstappen does warn of an exciting fight on Sunday.

"Of course they were also fighting a little bit, so I had a bit of a gap. After that, I think we were quite similar in pace, so I do expect tomorrow it’s going to be a very interesting battle again. The race is a lot longer, so it’s going to be quite tricky on tyres. I think the car is good. There are just a few things to find, but overall, we have been very competitive again this weekend."