"That's why there's still hope that Verstappen can make things difficult"
General
- GPblog.com
Last weekend in Styria Mercedes showed once again to be of unprecedented class. The fear strikes directly at the competition that the championship will go to Mercedes again without too much effort. Now that Ferrari seems to be falling away, Red Bull Racing has to put a stop to it. Mika Hakkinen thinks Max Verstappen is the only one who can.
Verstappen took his first points of 2020 during the GP of Styria. A disappointing first race meant that the Dutchman had to go straight into the chase. Mercedes seems particularly strong after last weekend and they are already favourites in Hungary. According to former F1-driver Mika Hakkinen there is still hope that Verstappen can put a stop to a new one-two of Mercedes.
In his column on Unibet the Finn first looks back at Austria: "The last fifteen laps it became clear that Valtteri Bottas was going to attack quite heavy. Not only were his tyres ten laps younger than Max's, but Verstappen also had some damage to his wing".
"It was great to see Verstappen fight so hard in lap 67, but in the end it didn't work out and Bottas was just too fast. You could just feel Max's frustration at that moment."
Can Verstappen take Mercedes in Hungary?
Looking ahead to the last race of the triple header in Hungary Hakkinen thinks: "Last year Verstappen took his first pole position in Budapest and led the race for 66 laps. Hamilton managed to catch him with fresher tyres at the end of the race".
Despite the fact that Verstappen lost last year while leading a strong race from pole position, Hakkinen does see hope for Verstappen to make things difficult for Mercedes this year: "There is still hope that Red Bull can fight Mercedes again and make things difficult for them".