The newly-crowned three times World Champion won an extremely challenging and physical Qatar GP in dominant style, with five-second of gap on runner-up and winner of yesterday’s Sprint Race Oscar Piastri.
It was a flat-out race due to the mandatory three stop strategy, which saw Verstappen also take the additional point for the fastest lap.
The Red Bull driver was exhausted but pleased with his fourteenth race win of the year, as he said:
“This motivates me to go again to the next one and try to win that again. This is the best feeling, and i want to win more. Again today, McLaren was quite close so we have to keep on trying to work harder to try and again make that gap a bit bigger, because I think they are improving a lot throughout the year, which is quite impressive to see.”
The last minute regulation update introduced by the FIA, which only allowed drivers to use their tyres for a maximum of 18 laps due to the excessive stress they were put under by the new kerbs, forced the drivers to a minimum of three pit stops during the 57 laps around the Lusail track.
“I prefer weekends where we push just as long as we can on a tyre and not force pit-stops. We design cars to be good on tyres. Today, we couldn’t optimise that fully, because that’s normally our strong point – but we’ll see what we can improve in the future.”
Photo credit: Oracle Red Bull Racing Team
He returned on the topic of flat-out racing in the post race press conference as well, mentioning how tiring it had been from a physical point of view as well:
“Pushing-wise for sure you could push a little bit more on the tyres, because you were just limited to those laps. And yeah, besides that, it’s of course, a bit of a shame that we had to do that. But yeah, luckily, I think nothing really happened. And I think that was, of course, the most important.”
Verstappen also summed up his race, highlighting the pivotal points that led him to the win after a second place in the Sprint Race yesterday. The Dutchman continually ran longer stints to the McLarens, and he was rewarded as he could take the fastest lap towards the end.
“It was, overall a good race. I think what really made my race was that first stint, where I think we were quite strong and good on the tyres. After that, because we had a bit of a tyre offset, compared to the McLaren, I could drive a bit longer on most of the sets, which maybe in some places, then cost me a bit on the out-lap and stuff.
“So then sometimes the gap looked a bit closer than it should have been. Then on the hard tyre, I lost quite a bit of time, I think, in the last two, three laps, because I had to get through some traffic. And then I had a slow stop as well to the end.”
At the end of the race the Dutch driver had a significantly smaller gap to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in second place, going from over ten seconds to almost five, as yet another remainder of how much the Woking-based team has managed to improve its 2023 season after scoring just 17 points in the first 8 races of the campaign.
“So, then they were very close behind me. But yeah, overall, of course, they have been really quick all weekend. So, I think especially with the fuel coming out, it looked like they were again picking up more and more pace, compared to me.
“Plus, of course, that three stop that was mandatory, I think was not ideal for us, personally. Because our car is good on tyres. So, when you need to do longer stints because that’s the fastest way around here, it would have probably been a bit better.
“But yeah, it was same for everyone at the end that we had to do those stops. We had to deal with that. And yeah, made it also probably bit harder to drive. We had to push quite hard out there. And yeah, as you could see, after the race, a lot of people are quite tired, I think,” he concluded remarking the extreme weather and racing conditions in the past GP weekend.
The Red Bull driver had also some kind words for McLaren, with both drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sharing the podium with him again at this race, claiming the consistency and speed the duo have been showing sees McLaren with their best driver line-up.
“I do think that as a team they are probably the most consistent, compared to the others behind us. And I do think they have the best driver line-up out of all of them. So yeah, they are operating really well. And, yeah, it’s going to be interesting to the end of the year, but also I think the start of next year to see where everyone is at.”
