Brundle: ''Red Bull will keep feeling they missed out on a victory''
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen came very close to a victory during the Grand Prix of Great Britain on Sunday. A flat tire from Lewis Hamilton was the ideal chance for a win, but Verstappen's pit stop threw a spanner in the works.
Strategic blunders at Silverstone?
A few laps before the end Valtteri Bottas has a leak and has to drive to the pits for a whole lap. Verstappen the Finn passes and gets the second place in the lap. With Bottas out of the way, Verstappen and Red Bull Racing opt for a pit stop, but they regret when Hamilton also has a leak in the final lap.
Because of the pit stop, Verstappen is five seconds short of victory on new tyres, which might have been possible without a pit stop. ''It brings us to the man who, apart from the Mercedes drivers, was the only one approaching victory. Once again Verstappen was the only one on Mercedes' radar, but it was a lonely race for the Dutchman," says Martin Brundle in his column for Sky Sports.
Just not for Verstappen
At the time of Hamilton's puncture, it was all or nothing for Verstappen. "He smelled blood from Mercedes, but the guess turned out wrong. Surprisingly Mercedes didn't go into the pit stop with Hamilton, because Red Bull had given all the room with the pit stop of Verstappen'', Brundle sounds surprised.
''Red Bull said that the tyres of Verstappen might have failed as well and we will never know the outcome. However, at Red Bull there will always be the feeling that they have missed the opportunity to hijack a victory at Mercedes here", concludes the former Formula 1 driver.