Red Bull chiefs want to give Liam Lawson time to adjust after the Kiwi finished dead-last in Sprint Qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Lawson has had difficulty adjusting to the Red Bull RB21, suffering a Q1 exit and DNF at the season opener in Australia.

Another new circuit awaited the Kiwi this weekend in Shanghai with Lawson granted just one practice session to prepare ahead of Sprint Qualifying, where things unravelled once again.

While Max Verstappen wound up second in Friday’s session, Lawson was dumped out at the first hurdle, propping up the field in SQ1.

Four tenths off of the Dutchman in his first flying run, Lawson saw his second attempt struck from the timesheet after running wide at Turn 9.

Struggling to cool his Medium Pirelli rubber ahead of the blast, Lawson’s lap was fraught with low grip and he was seen grappling with his Red Bull RB21 before his untimely Sprint Qualifying exit.

“I went off, so yeah, it’s obviously a shame,” a downbeat Lawson said after SQ1. 

“I think from a starting point it wasn’t too bad, the first lap was alright, and then we were just looking to build on there. 

“But we stayed out to try to cool the tyres on track, and to be honest I really struggled to get the temps down starting the second lap.

“Basically we started too hot and then through the lap I just struggled. It’s frustrating.

“It’s really a shame because I think honestly, we started okay in Quali.

“The first lap wasn’t amazing but it was relatively okay, so it’s just a shame to be out for something so frustrating.

Given his team-mate qualified second, it’s no wonder Lawson believed “Our pace should be a lot further up than where we are.

“Obviously we have tomorrow’s sprint race to try and learn some stuff and then tomorrow’s quali as well, obviously. We want to do a better job on this.”

Marko and Horner taking pressure off of Lawson

The typically harsh Helmut Marko was more sympathetic to Lawson’s struggles when speaking with the Dutch arm of Motorsport.com.

“It’s sad, but he needs some laps and he must get in a rhythm to show his potential,” the Austrian said.

“I think we have to give him more time. Both circuits, he didn’t know, Melbourne and this one. 

“So we’re looking forward and of course first, next to Max, it looks also that our car is quite difficult to drive.”

Team Principal Christian Horner’s assessment of the Lawson situation was similar when approached to comment by Sky Sports‘ Martin Brundle ahead of Friday’s session.

“We’re only at race two,” Horner said. 

“It’s a circuit he’s never seen before. So I think we have to be fair and give him time. And he will he will get there. 

“But we just need to give him the back and give him time. And, you know, he’s in a highly pressured seat. And it doesn’t get any easier.”

Later in Friday’s press conference, Horner continued his Lawson analysis.

“I think Liam’s got a pretty sensible head on his shoulders,” Horner added. 

“It was a tough baptism for him [in Melbourne]. 

“He still came away with the second fastest race lap. And I just told him: “Ignore the naysayers, ignore social media, put your head down and you’ll be fine.” 

“He just needs a bit of time.”

Time is something Lawson has been granted by Red Bull and the crucial element he needs to find out on track.

READ MORE – Christian Horner highlights positive from incident-ridden Liam Lawson Red Bull F1 debut

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Max Verstappen believes Red Bull shouldn’t have had the pace to secure a front row spot for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race.

Verstappen is set to line up alongside old adversary Lewis Hamilton for Saturday’s Sprint at the Shanghai International Circuit with the legendary duo separated by a mere 0.018s.

The shock omission was the two McLaren drivers who suffered with a fast, but prickly MCL39 leaving a positively surprised Verstappen to capitalise.

“I do think that in first practice we were quite a bit off so I’m very happy to be on the front row,” the Dutchman said on Friday.

“The lap was very good, it’s very tough when you go from a medium to a soft to nail the lap with no references,” he added, referencing the peculiar tyre rules that mandate medium compounds for the first two segments of Sprint Qualifying. 

“I mean, of course, when you look at it, it was 18 thousandths or something off of pole, but I don’t think we should have even been on the front row anyway, so I’m very happy to be second.”

Verstappen went on to say that he and the team made minimal changes to the RB21 as drivability wasn’t an issue heading into Sprint Qualifying.

Instead, the 2025 Red Bull challenger lacks overall pace, as Liam Lawson’s SQ1 exit demonstrated.

Equally, Verstappen’s result showed how maximum efficiency can pay huge dividends.

“I don’t think the balance is massively off we’re just too slow, I would say,” said Verstappen. 

“But this [result] is good for us, a little motivation boost I think as well for everyone. 

“We keep nailing the laps, we keep trying to maximise everything that we got and you need to do that as well when you’re maybe struggling a little bit more for pace.”

Verstappen analyses China Sprint prospects

Looking ahead to Saturday’s Sprint, Verstappen held a glass-half-full mentality.

He expects Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to pose a threat from third and sixth on the grid, but at least thinks he can challenge amongst the front runners in his Red Bull.

“I think we’ve got a car to try and keep something because the McLarens didn’t look as quick today in that session as we thought they would be,” he began. 

“I think they looked very fast up until that last run, so I think it will be very hard to keep them behind, but hopefully it’ll be fun. 

“We are all, I wouldn’t say close, but at least we can race a bit around, that would be nice for me.”

READ MORE – Max Verstappen makes admission on Red Bull win prospects in F1 2025

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Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner is unsure how the latest clampdown on flexi-wings will impact the Formula 1 pecking order as Alpine is forced to make a change.

The FIA informed teams ahead of the new season that front wing flex-limitations will be restricted as of Round 9, with rear wing flex restrictions in place at the season opener to the tune of 2 mm vertical movement on the main plane under a load of 75 kg. 

However, during pre-season testing, Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache accused the likes of McLaren and Ferrari of abusing rear-wing flex rules, a phenom colloquially referred to as ‘mini-DRS’ after Oscar Piastri’s MCL38 was scrutinised in Baku last year.

The FIA found no teams in breach of rear wing flex regulations at the season-opener in Melbourne, but its surveillance prompted a new technical directive, effective for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, slashing the flexibility limit from 2mm to 0.5mm.

McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes haven’t had to make changes as a result of the Technical Directive, but there has been a change for some of the midfield outfits.

Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu told the Sky Sports broadcast team during practice at the Shanghai International Circuit that the VF-25 has had to stiffen its rear wing after being close to the margin on the 2mm limit in Melbourne.

As well as this, Alpine Racing Director Dave Greenwood confirmed to Motorsport.com that his team has made a change.

“We’ve had to do some work back at the factory to make sure we were in a correct place here, but I think that’s fairly normal in these situations,” he said. 

“When a rule and an allowance of deflection changes, you need to check that you are going to be able to comply with that as well.

“I think you can imagine the time scales were very small, so it’s not like you can do something revolutionary. But yeah, there are things we can do to make sure we comply.”

Horner unsure of TD impact

Given that none of the top four teams have admitted to making changes, adamant that the rear wing flexibility has been adhered to both at Melbourne and Shanghai, it’s hard to see how this latest technical directive will impact the pecking order.

This was predominantly the thoughts of Horner when he was asked about the new rules during Friday’s press conference in China.

“Well, I mean, the FIA, it’s their job obviously to police these things,” Horner said. 

“They obviously saw things that they weren’t particularly happy with at the last race.

“So therefore, as is their prerogative, they’ve tightened up those regulations through TD that came out this week. 

“Now, what effect it has up and down the grid, I really don’t know. 

“But that’s just part and parcel of Formula 1. TDs are almost forthcoming on a weekly basis.”

What could create a bigger impact, is the front wing flex clampdown in Spain later this year.

Horner has already commented on the matter, querying the timing.

“Yeah, it’ll be interesting the effect that it has – I guess the slight oddball about it is the timing of it,” Horner said.

“Why race nine? It might have been better to have been addressed during the off-season, because you end up doing sort of two specs of wings.

“But who will gain or who will lose from it, I think, is impossible to predict.”

READ MORE – Lando Norris: McLaren ‘not pushing rear-wing flex limits enough’ amid China clampdown

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Max Verstappen claims it’s “impossible” to quantify whether McLaren’s 2025 advantage outweighs the one Red Bull had with its 2023 Formula 1 machine.

Mercedes’ George Russell has been repeatedly despondent about the field’s deficit to McLaren, despite the 2025 season being one race young.

In Melbourne, he argued that McLaren could already switch 100% development focus onto next year given the pace of the MCL39 and on Thursday in Shanghai, he made an even bolder claim.

“The gap they have this year on everybody is bigger than Red Bull has ever had,” he said (via The Race),” adding the MCL39’s advantage is “definitely bigger” than the RB19 that won all but one race in 2023.

Verstappen, meanwhile, said “it’s impossible” to say whether the MCL39 is stronger than the all-conquering Red Bull.

“Unless you have driven that car yourself,” he added.

“They’re super strong,” Verstappen said of McLaren. 

“I have a lot of respect for what they have done already last year and now they’re very fast. Very all-round, good everywhere.

“That is just a fact now, how big the gap is or whatever is difficult to say.”

Red Bull lacking all-around performance to McLaren – Verstappen

All-around performance is something that Verstappen believes Red Bull’s RB21 is lacking.

Speaking to F1 media the Dutchman said “I just want to focus on our own car. We just try to work from there, because that’s the only thing that we can control anyway. 

“That’s what I prefer to focus on and hopefully, step by step, we can find some more performance.

“I think in general, what we have seen so far, high-speed has not really been weak, so it is quite good.

“It is more the rest of it, where we are not all-round enough. 

“That is what we have to work on. Here, there are not that many high-speed corners, but there are a lot of unknowns with the tarmac – it’s new. So it’s very hard to say where we will be.”

His assessment of the weekend ahead was pragmatic, saying “I for sure know that we will not be the quickest because I think that is McLaren with how strong they are currently. 

“But that’s fine. We just have to focus on ourselves and try to do the best we can.”

When it comes to how the pecking order behind McLaren, Verstappen added “Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari were all quite close [in Australia]. 

“And [that] probably will differ a bit track to track.”

READ MORE – Max Verstappen makes admission on Red Bull win prospects in F1 2025

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Yuki Tsunoda has claimed that rumours surrounding the Red Bull group are “tradition” amid Liam Lawson’s nightmare weekend in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

Lawson endured a disastrous maiden outing with the parent Red Bull team as, having missed FP3, he rued several mistakes which consigned him to a Q1 elimination.

The New Zealander’s anguish was compounded in the race as he struggled to progress until a spin on a damp track brought a premature end to a miserable weekend.

Meanwhile, Tsunoda thrived in the Racing Bulls as he qualified fifth – two tenths behind Max Verstappen – and was running in the top five until a botched strategic call.

Tsunoda’s exploits prompted McLaren CEO Zak Brown to express that Red Bull commits to “strange driver choices” regarding its decision to promote Lawson instead.

But although he valued Brown’s comment, Tsunoda pinpointed that he is accustomed to speculation swirling about changes in the Red Bull stable across a campaign.

“I appreciate what Zak said to me in the press, but it’s just one race,” Tsunoda told media including Motorsport Week.

“These things have been going on since last year [after the] first race. Daniel [Ricciardo to replace] Checo [Perez], myself [to replace] Checo, Liam [to replace] Checo.

“It’s a bit of a tradition for our group. It’s positive but at the same time, I just have to keep [doing] what I’m doing.

“In the end, they chose this line-up last year at the end of the season. Maybe they have a clear plan for the future, I don’t know.”

Tsunoda explains Racing Bulls blunder

Tsunoda had passed Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari to reclaim his original starting place when a rain shower descended on the Albert Park Circuit which unravelled his race.

Racing Bulls, like the side’s more established Italian counterparts, made a late switch to the Intermediates, culminating in Tsunoda slipping outside the points to 12th.

“It was hard for myself as well to monitor every single corner because every lap it kept changing,” he recalled.

“The lap before, sector one was not raining, but one lap later it was complete rain and we reacted too late.

“I don’t think I made a mistake, to be honest, in terms of communications and everything, I’m pretty happy with it.

“It just didn’t go the way we wanted. The Safety Car came out a lap after I pitted, which wasn’t bad.

“At the same time, we know what has happened, and the team apologised to me right after the race.”

READ MORE – Racing Bulls apologises to Yuki Tsunoda after F1 Australian GP blunder

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George Russell has contended that McLaren’s current advantage has surpassed the one that Red Bull possessed at the height of the team’s dominance in Formula 1.

The widespread consensus that McLaren would be the side to beat was realised last weekend as Lando Norris prevailed in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

But while his winning margin over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was less than a second, intermittent weather and Safety Car interventions shrouded McLaren’s true gap.

Indeed, having survived Verstappen’s initial charge in the opening stages, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri created a 14-second lead over the Dutchman in 10 laps.

Even prior to the race, Russell had claimed that McLaren’s front-row lockout demonstrated it could switch attention to the new 2026 rules now and still win both titles.

The Briton has doubled down on that view amid McLaren’s victorious start, as he argued the team’s advantage has eclipsed what Red Bull boasted at its peak in 2023.

However, Russell has predicted that the McLaren drivers won’t capitalise on its supremacy as well as Verstappen did when he drove the RB19 to 19 wins in 22 rounds.

“I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race,” Russell said.

“Their car should win every race, but I don’t think they will win every race this year. Let’s see. 

“The gap they have this year on everybody is bigger than Red Bull has ever had.

“But when Max was in that [2023] car he was pretty reliable every single lap he did every single run in Q3, throughout qualifying, never really a question. 

“Hopefully we can be there to capitalise like we were at the [previous] weekend, as that should have been a 1-2 for those guys.”

FIA clampdown won’t hinder McLaren much

The discussion during the build-up to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix has surrounded whether an FIA clampdown on flexible rear wings could destabilise McLaren.

But with Norris adamant the team hasn’t had to make changes to its car, Russell has conceded the ruling wouldn’t have altered the outcome at the Albert Park Circuit.

“If the TD (Technical Directive) was there in Melbourne they definitely would have won the race because they’re just so far ahead,” the Mercedes driver highlighted.

Where does McLaren’s advantage lie?

Instead, Russell has reiterated that McLaren’s cutting edge over the competition resides in how the team’s MCL39 car preserves the Pirelli tyre better over a race stint.

“If you’re talking about trying to find that amount of lap time in downforce that isn’t going to happen in a season and it’s never happened in a season,” he elaborated.

“They’re clearly doing something better than the rest, clearly substantially quicker than everybody when the tyres are getting hot.

“We saw that in the Bahrain test. We saw it in sector three in [Australia] qualifying, they were four-tenths faster than everyone else in sector three.

“Same car they had in sector one and two, only difference is tyre overheating.

“There’s room for us to improve but…and we know we have room to improve but we don’t feel like there are masses of opportunities to improve in that region, it’s quite tightly controlled.

“So they’re clearly doing something pretty trick and that gap is huge.”

READ MORE – McLaren ‘surprised’ by overall competitiveness of 2025 F1 car

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Liam Lawson has said he “couldn’t care less” about Zak Brown’s view amid the McLaren CEO’s claim that Yuki Tsunoda merited a Red Bull drive in Formula 1 over him.

Lawson encountered a tumultuous maiden weekend with Red Bull in Australia as an attempt to rebound from a Q1 elimination ended in a crash that curtailed his race.

The New Zealander had trailed behind his more experienced team-mate Max Verstappen throughout practice, prompting him to assert that he was “slow” in the RB21.

READ MORE – Liam Lawson suggests leading cause behind disastrous F1 Australian GP qualifying

That culminated in Lawson being the lowest-placed Red Bull-backed driver on the grid, with Tsunoda, who was overlooked, propelling his Racing Bulls into the top five.

Brown pounced on the chance to aim a snide dig at Red Bull as he proclaimed that Tsunoda warranted the promotion, branding the group’s decision-making “strange”.

However, Lawson, who has been tasked with supporting Red Bull’s hopes in the Constructors’ Championship, has insisted that Brown’s comment hasn’t bothered him.

“I couldn’t care less what Zak says, to be honest with you,” Lawson declared.

“I don’t think I’ve spoken to him, ever and I haven’t read any social media over the last two weeks.”

Lawson aiming to build Red Bull momentum

Lawson’s debut with the parent Red Bull team at Albert Park marked his 12th race start in F1, with his previous appearances coming over two stints with Racing Bulls.

But while his Red Bull career started on a disastrous note, Lawson is relishing the opportunity to gain some momentum with four races coming in the next five weeks.

“Always as a driver, if you have a good weekend, sometimes you want to sit on it for a little bit,” he said. 

“Then you have a bad weekend, you just want to go racing again. So for me, yes, it’s good. 

“But also, [it’s good] to have lots of races at the start of the season. We have a week off [after China] and then a triple header. 

“With how sort of little experience having this car, it’s just going to be good to do more weekends to get more comfortable and familiar.”

READ MORE – Christian Horner highlights positive from incident-ridden Liam Lawson Red Bull F1 debut

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McLaren chiefs Zak Brown and Andrea Stella dropped some subtle digs at Formula 1 rivals Red Bull over staff retention.

Brown has long been a thorn in Red Bull’s side. 

During the behind-the-scenes controversy surrounding Christian Horner last year, he was vocal in the media on several occasions.

When Adrian Newey announced his departure, Brown told media in Miami last May “The stuff going on there is pretty destabilising. I’m guessing it won’t be the last [departure] given the resumes that are flying around.”

2024 saw other key figures leave Red Bull, with long-serving Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley accepting a Team Principal role with Sauber/Audi and McLaren announcing in September it had poached its rival’s Head of Race Strategy Will Courtenay to serve as the Woking squad’s Sporting Director.

The release of Courtenay from his gardening leave has yet to occur, and it looks as if Red Bull will delay the arrival of its former strategist in Woking for as long as possible.

Stella was asked during the Australian Grand Prix weekend why this was being delayed and whether the rivalry brewing between McLaren and Red Bull was the cause.

“There are some contracts that need to be complied with and we respect the position of the other party at the moment,” he said.

That’s what they want to enforce, and we will be patient,” the diplomatic Italian added.

Still, Stella, much like his counterpart Brown, couldn’t resist highlighting that McLaren is becoming a better proposition than Red Bull.

“We are very interested in injecting expertise and understand even more about how other teams operate, and we are very focused on creating an environment where not only our people want to remain, but also that can be attractive for the other people to join. 

“And it looks like that’s been the case with some senior members that came from the same party.”

‘People don’t steal employees, you lose them’ – Brown

McLaren has worked over the winter to tie its leadership, technical and driving team down to long-term futures in Woking.

The latest signature was that of Oscar Piastri, who has penned a multi-year extension starting in 2026.

Brown argued that the importance of what McLaren is doing is creating an environment where staff want to remain, arguing that nobody steals your sponsors or colleagues, but they’re lost instead.

“I think what’s important, you know, you hear over the years, people steal your sponsors, people steal your drivers, people steal your employees. They don’t. You lose them. 

“If someone can get a logo off of our shirt, that’s on us, more power to them. 

“So I think putting aside the contractual element you want to create, which I think we’ve successfully done. We don’t have a single change on our pit wall this year. We don’t have a single change in our technical leadership. We don’t have, obviously, any changes in our driver roster. 

“And that’s because we’ve worked very hard to create an environment where people want to be at McLaren. Their families want to be at McLaren. And that’s something that I think Andrea and I, and the leadership, spend a lot of time on making it an environment that people want to be at, where we don’t have to rely on contracts to have people stay at McLaren.”

Given Brown’s track record, that may well just be another message for Red Bull, especially since he didn’t resist questioning the team’s driver selection.

Speaking to Sky Sports after Yuki Tsunoda qualified fifth at the Albert Park Circuit and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson suffered a Q1 exit, Brown said: “Yuki did a great job, probably the guy that should be in the Red Bull if you look at how he’s performed, but they seem to make some strange driver choices.”

READ MORE – McLaren poaches Red Bull’s long-time F1 Head of Race Strategy

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McLaren CEO Zak Brown has predicted that reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen will decide to leave Red Bull to move to Mercedes for the 2026 campaign.

The Dutchman’s prospects have provided much speculation since tension behind the seats coincided with Red Bull sustaining a downturn in competitiveness in 2024.

With Lewis Hamilton signing with Ferrari, Verstappen’s name was bandied about as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s leading target to replace the seven-time F1 champion.

However, with Verstappen insisting that he would be remaining with Red Bull in 2025, Mercedes promoted Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the seat alongside George Russell.

Verstappen, though, has been linked with a possible move to Aston Martin, with reports claiming that a deal worth $1 billion could see him reunite with Adrian Newey.

But Brown, who has spearheaded McLaren’s renaissance to eclipse Red Bull as the benchmark in the sport, is convinced Verstappen will make a switch to Mercedes.

“Oh I think he’ll leave at the end of this year, most likely to Merc,” Brown told The Telegraph.

“There’s been talk of Aston Martin, too, with Adrian Newey joining.

“But as great as Adrian is – and he’s the greatest ever – you need a whole team around you. You need the culture. That takes time.

“If I was betting, I’d bet on Merc.”

Brown highlighted how the suspicion that Mercedes has an edge with work on the next-generation power units coming in 2026 could be enough to entice Verstappen.

“In the last 10 years, they’ve won the championship seven or eight times,” he pinpointed. “Last year they won five races. They have stability.

“We know Toto likes him.

“And I think we all feel HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] is best equipped on the power unit side heading into the new engine regulations next year.

“Plus, George is out of contract at the end of this season and Kimi will be on a series of one-years.”

Mercedes performance key to future Verstappen move?

The contractual situation of both Mercedes drivers could come into play, should Brown’s assertion that Verstappen is likely to join the team be correct.

Antonelli has kickstarted his F1 car in impressive fashion, overturning a lowly grid place at the season-opener in Melbourne to finishing in fourth, navigating his way through the tricky, changeable conditions to stay on the road and finish one place behind Russell, who completed the podium.

The Italian’s progress will be watched closely, and will be keen to repay the faith shown in him by Wolff, who chose him to fill the seismic gap left by Hamilton.

Russell has performed admirably in his time with the team, since joining from Williams in 2022.

In three seasons, the Kings Lynn man has finished above Hamilton in the Drivers’ standings twice, being the first team-mate of the seven-time champion to do so.

Depending on the competitiveness of the W16, Russell will be surely expected to return more wins this year.

An additional factor at play could be his relationship with Verstappen, which took a contentious turn last year at the Qatar Grand Prix, in which an alleged incident involving the stewards, who stripped him of pole position, left him saying he had “lost respect” for Russell, who then rebuked Verstappen’s attitude in media interviews after the event.

However, such speculation may be academic, as Wolff has said Verstappen was “not on any radar” for the team.

READ MORE – Max Verstappen ‘not on Mercedes radar’ as George Russell contract talks loom

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Max Verstappen has admitted Red Bull has “a lot of work to do” to be in contention to win races in the 2025 Formula 1 season based on the team’s deficit to McLaren.

Verstappen started the new campaign on the podium as he came home in second place, less than one second behind Lando Norris in a chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

However, the eventual margin at the end flattered Red Bull’s competitiveness as intermittent rain and multiple Safety Car interventions eliminated the lead Norris held.

Having passed Oscar Piastri at the start, Verstappen split the McLarens until struggles with tyre degradation triggered a mistake as he ran deep at Turn 11 on Lap 17.

The Dutchman proceeded to spurn time at an alarming rate as he dropped 18 seconds behind until Fernando Alonso’s crash on Lap 34 neutralised proceedings again.

Despite being satisfied with the result, Verstappen is under no illusion that Red Bull isn’t in a position to challenge McLaren on merit with the RB21 in its current guise.

“I think it’s good compared to the teams behind us,” Verstappen told media including Motorsport Week.

“But if you look at the first stint, we were quite a bit off. As soon as the tyres started to overheat, we had no chance. McLaren just took off.

“So, we still have a lot of work to do to fight for a win.

“But yeah, I’m happy that we are second here. It’s basically one place better than we should have been. And it’s 18 more points than I had last year at this race.”

Verstappen denies Red Bull missed chance to win

Verstappen inherited the lead on Lap 44 when a rain shower caused both McLarens to run wide at Turn 12, pitching Piastri into a spin and sending Norris into the pits.

Red Bull elected to leave Verstappen out on slicks across the next two laps, prompting questions about whether the team had missed a golden chance to beat Norris.

However, the reigning F1 champion concurred with Red Bull boss Christian Horner that stopping even a lap earlier wouldn’t have changed his overall finishing position.

“We were on the Medium, and of course, you never know how that’s going to work out,” he explained.

“But I thought it was quite a sensible call with 15, 16, or 20 laps to go when the Safety Car came out.

“Then, of course, it started to rain. I saw them go off in front of me, kept it clean, and when I saw Oscar rejoining, I thought, “Well, let’s stay out,” because it was only those three corners.

“The rest was still dry. When I continued, basically, the first two sectors were fine – it was just if I could survive the final sector. I think that lap I did was okay.

“If there wasn’t much more rain coming, I thought it could work.

“You also have to factor in that even if they caught me on an Inter, they’d have to box again for slicks, if it’s not going to rain anymore.

“So, it was fine. I thought, “We’ll do another lap,” but then, unfortunately, on that lap, the first sector was still okay-ish, but then in Sector 2, it started to rain a bit too much and we had to box.

“But in hindsight, it wouldn’t have mattered. If I’d boxed with Lando, it would have been P2. If I’d boxed the next lap, it would have been P2. And the lap that I did box, I was also P2.

“So, we tried something else—it might have worked. In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine.”

Verstappen powerless to mount Norris attack

Verstappen denied he could have overtaken Norris with the late pressure he applied, citing the damp conditions made it impossible to venture outside the racing line.

Questioned on whether he was wishing there was one more lap, Verstappen retorted: “No, not so much, to be honest.

“I just tried my best, tried to be close, tried to put a bit of pressure on, but it’s very hard to pass around here. There was only one line.

“Even if I had gotten a run into whatever, Turn 9, you have to go onto the wet part, so you can’t really do a lot. But at least it was close. It looked good on TV!”

READ MORE – Red Bull highlights ‘quite strange’ McLaren advantage in F1 2025

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