Max Verstappen surprised himself by winning the Bahrain Grand Prix by a wide margin. The Red Bull driver did not leave a good impression in the free practice sessions and things did not go smoothly in qualifying either. At Friday’s press conference, Verstappen clearly stated that he did not take into account a margin of half a second per lap on the entire field.
Yet George Russell was right. On new softs, Verstappen even went two seconds faster than the rest to take the fastest race lap. Even though he had to use all his electrical systems, it also shows that Verstappen had a lot left and that surprised him. What also made the race a lot more difficult was finding the right balance. That had to do with the wind.
Hardly any wind
Because there was hardly any wind on Saturday, Verstappen had the right feeling again in the RB20. The conditions were therefore comparable to the previous test days, in which Red Bull also left a good impression. Because Verstappen no longer had to take the wind into account, he could concentrate a lot better on managing his tires, he noted at the press conference.
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Verstappen himself did not expect to be half a second per lap faster. He wants to indicate that this performance does not mean that things will be that easy again in the coming races. His conclusion based on qualifying is that the other teams have come a lot closer. Yet the Red Bull has always proven to be better in the race, Verstappen also knows.
Focus on race
“I think for whatever reason we are a little less good over one lap,” Verstappen told Motorsport.com. ‘Happy is ours race pace on most circuits very good. Of course, I focus a little more on the race in terms of setup, although it seems that other teams can somehow get more out of it over one lap. We will look at that for the coming races, although the circumstances in recent days were not in our favor,” he concludes.
