(Motorsport-Total.com) – On the first lap the race in Portimao could have been over for Max Verstappen. After he was pushed off the track by Valtteri Bottas in turn 3, he ran into Sergio Perez just one turn later, who wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Crimson Bull driver had lost momentum ( Formula 1 2020 live in the ticker ).
© Motorsport Images
Sergio Perez wanted to benefit from the duel between Bottas and Verstappen Zoom Download
The two of them collided, forcing Sergio Perez into a spin and sending it back to the last place. Verstappen himself suffered no damage and drove on unmolested. “There was just very little grip,” said the Dutchman. “I just tried to stay away from the problems, but then I had a little contact with Sergio.”
Verstappen met for the second time this weekend (after Lance Stroll in training) the inside of the curve a racing point that half scamper in front of him, but his opponent is to blame for him: “He didn’t leave me enough space, so he took himself out of the race,” says Verstappen.
Perez sees it differently himself: “I left Max enough space,” the Mexican defends himself. “The first lap warfare was just very difficult. You could see that everyone had a lot of problems. We touched us very late in the corner.”
Perez could see that early on Mercedes had problems warming up the tires. He felt he had an advantage on his soft tires. “It was drizzling a bit, so I saw opportunities,” he explains and wanted to use his chance when Verstappen warfare something off the track. Became as soon as followed, the collision warfare.
The stewards saw no main culprit and closed the file without imposing a penalty on a pilot.
And while Perez was still able to finish seventh from the very back, Verstappen continued after the collision: “It was raining a bit, so I just tried to keep the car on the track. And when everything stabilized I overtook the McLaren, “he says. “I don’t know how, but they had a lot of grip on the first lap.”
At the end of the day, Verstappen warfare, but the medium tire was the best tire of the day. “It would have made no difference whether I had started on the medium, because then I would have lost my time cease on the hard. We finished where we deserved it,” said Verstappen after third.
0 Comments