2023-04-30 14:20:54
Last year’s Azerbaijani winner Max Verstappen took second place on the Baku City Circuit and knows that more would have been possible that day.
This time, the 25-year-old was faced with unfortunate timing in terms of the safety car, plus slight technical problems with the engine brake, which were not ideally in tune with the differential and made it difficult to keep up with leader Sergio Pérez. In addition, the tire management was not optimal.
Max Verstappen said following his 81st podium finish (one more than Ayrton Senna): “If you follow a car closely, your tires get too hot. That happened to me. On top of that, I wasn’t entirely happy with the car today, I didn’t find the handling to be consistently good. I tried to improve something with the resources I have in the cockpit and in the end the car was quite decent. But it wasn’t enough once morest Checo today.”
“Of course, the race went once morest me with this safety car phase, but a Formula 1 race doesn’t always go perfectly, and I don’t expect that from every Grand Prix either. We scored well once more, that has to be enough for today. I stick to my line – if I can’t win, then I want to get as many points as possible and learn a lot. I did that today.”
“It might easily have gone very differently today, I’ve been to the wall a few times. But that’s part of a street course when you’re going full attack.”
“The positive thing today is that we have once once more learned a great deal regarding the car, which we will implement in the upcoming Grands Prix. And we achieved the ideal team result.”
“The season is still very long, and next weekend in Miami a completely different course is coming our way.”
“In general, this weekend was a bit hectic. Looking back, maybe I should have handled my tires differently. But the biggest reason why that didn’t work out today was the timing of the safety car phase. We’ll have to see if we can’t do it better next time.”
«Of course I later tried to put pressure on Checo. But I realized that I was putting too much strain on my tires, so I slowed down once more, maybe to get another chance at the end of the race.”
“The race was strange because the balance of the car kept changing. Here you need a very good car from corner entry to the apex, but that wasn’t the case this time around. Sometimes too much understeer, sometimes too much oversteer. I was constantly making corrections in the cockpit and I did find a compromise with regarding ten laps to go, but then I ran out of time. In the end, the race was too short for me.”
“I am very optimistic regarding the further course of the season. We finished 20 seconds ahead of Ferrari and clearly have the best race car. Even if things don’t always work out for me.”
Aserbaidschan-GP, Baku City Circuit
01. Sergio Perez (MEX), Red Bull Racing, 1:32:42.435
02. Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing, +2,137 sec
03. Charles Leclerc (MC), Ferrari, +21,217
04. Fernando Alonso (E), Aston Martin, +22,024
05. Carlos Sainz (E), Ferrari, +45,491
06. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes, +46,145
07. Lance Stroll (CDN), Aston Martin, +51,617
08. George Russell (GB), Mercedes, +74,240
09. Lando Norris (GB), McLaren, +80.376
10. Yuki Tsunoda (J), AlphaTauri, +83,862
11. Oscar Piastri (AUS), McLaren, +86.501
12. Alex Albon (T), Williams, +88,623
13. Kevin Magnussen (DK), Haas, +89.729
14. Pierre Gasly (F), Alpine, +91,332
15. Esteban Ocon (F), Alpine, +97,794
16. Logan Sargeant (USA), Williams, +100,943
17. Nico Hulkenberg (D), Haas, +1 lap
18. Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Alfa Romeo, +1 Runde
Out
Guanyu Zhou (RCH), Alfa Romeo, drive damage
Nyck de Vries (NL), AlphaTauri, accident
Championship status (following 4 of 23 races)
driver
01. Verstappen 93 points
02. Pérez 87
03. Alonso 60
04. Hamilton 48
05. Sainz 34
06. Leclerc 28
07. Russell 28
08. Stroll 27
09. Norris 10
10. Hulkenberg 6
10. Leclerc 13 +15
11. Plates 4
12. Bottas 4
13. Ocon 4
14. Gasly 4
15. Zhou 2
16. Tsunoda 2
17. Albon 1
18. Magnussen 1
19. Sargeant 0
20. De Vries 0
Constructors’ Cup
01. Red Bull Racing 180 Punkte
02. Aston Martin 87
03. Mercedes 76
04. Ferrari 62
05. McLaren 14
06. Alpine 8
07. Haas 7
08. Alfa Romeo 6
09. Alpha Tauri 2
10. Williams 1
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#Wall #couple #times
