Despite regaining the championship lead in Turkey, Max Verstappen believes the Formula One title fight against Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will be “not easy.”
After finishing second in a rainy Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on Sunday, Verstappen moved six points clear of Hamilton at the top of the drivers’ standings.
Hamilton had a two-point lead heading into the weekend, but due to an engine penalty, he was forced to start 11th on the grid. He recovered to finish fifth in the race, despite Mercedes’ choice to risk keeping him out longer on his first set of intermediates in order to attempt and finish even higher, causing some radio frustration.
Verstappen was unable to put up any real challenge to race winner Valtteri Bottas, who took his first win of the season for Mercedes with a 14.5-second lead at the checkered flag.
Verstappen felt Mercedes was “definitely quicker this weekend” and Red Bull “didn’t get it together,” showing that he would face a tough challenge to win the championship even after recovering the lead.
“In the wet, they seem to have a bit of the edge as well,” Verstappen said.
“We’ll have to analyse of course why we were not competitive here, and I do think they probably stepped it up a bit more.
“Even with the points lead, it’s not going to be easy.
“I think I said it before we even started the weekend, so far we’ve had a really good year. It’s not going to change the world for me if I finish first or second at the end of the day. But I’m always going to give my best.
“We’ll see again in Austin how it’s going to go. We won’t give up, we’ll always try to do the best we can.
“Hopefully in the end, for the championship, it is going to be enough. But if it isn’t, I’m not going to sleep less.”
Verstappen had been within a few seconds of Bottas during the first stint, and he was hoping to gain an advantage by switching to a second set of intermediates before Mercedes arrived.
One lap later, Mercedes reacted to ensure Bottas kept his lead, with Verstappen opting not to charge to close the gap in the final stages, ensuring he kept second.
“Considering our whole weekend, being a bit off-pace compared to Mercedes, I think we had quite a decent race,” Verstappen said.
“There was no point where I could attack Valtteri, and he was just managing his race also very well and looking after his tyres.
“Also I had Charles [Leclerc] quite close behind me in the first stint, he had very good pace as well. At one point, I said yeah, the tyres are pretty gone, they were completely work to slicks, so it was quite tricky out there when the track is like it was.
“So we decided to box, and basically after the stop, 20 laps to go I think, just decided to bring it home. I anyway didn’t have the pace to fight Valtteri, so there was also no need to be within two or three-tenths to try and just follow him.
“[I] just saved the tyres to the end basically.”
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