Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Circuit of the Americas, 2019

Verstappen: Hamilton’s advantage exaggerated by slipstream

2019 F1 season

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Max Verstappen says Lewis Hamilton’s margin over his rivals in second practice was exaggerated because he had a tow from another car on his quickest lap.

Hamilton ended second practice three-tenths of a second faster than Charles Leclerc and Verstappen. The Red Bull driver believes his car is more competitive than it looks over a single lap.

“Overall it’s been a pretty positive day,” he said. “I think that the pace of the car in the short run is not bad.

“Lewis had a tow on the back straight so it’s not really [representative], the lap time. I think it’s smaller.”

Verstappen believes Red Bull have the most time to gain over a race stint.

“The long runs I think I was not entirely happy, we can still do a little bit better. But this track is very aggressive on tyres as well. So I think if we can keep the tyres under the control then suddenly everything looks a lot better. But overall a good start to the weekend.”

His team mate Alexander Albon, who drove the Circuit of the Americas for the first time today, said he has time to find in the sinuous first sector and low-speed corners.

“It was OK, I enjoyed it,” said Albon. “It’s quite technical. There’s a lot of track, so you don’t know where to put the car.

“The first session was pretty good, the second session not as good. But I kind of know what direction we want to go for tomorrow.”

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Josh Holland
USA-based Josh joined the RaceFans team in 2018. Josh helps produce our Formula 1 race weekend coverage, assists with our social media activities and...

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16 comments on “Verstappen: Hamilton’s advantage exaggerated by slipstream”

  1. Wow, almost straight away.

    Think Lewis is in Max’s head.

    1. +1. Who’s in who’s head again?…..

  2. He is absolutely obsessed with Hamilton.

  3. In Keiths head or in Maxs head? Maybe read the article if it isnt to hard.

  4. Max! Polite suggestion? Who’s in who’s head??!!
    Dear boy get a grip & just drive. Your psycho analysis is rubbish!
    Leave the psycho babble to the you know whos!!

    1. GtisBetter (@)
      2nd November 2019, 11:16

      Calm down. Could it be that a reporter asked about the time difference between Max and Lewis and Max just replied that he is closer then the times suggest, cause of a tow? I don’t know for sure, but that is what I am getting from this reply.

      1. I am sure that he answer the quation of the reporter.

  5. Max’s head = lots of spare room 😂

  6. We probably all agree with you, but the point being made was Ham and Seb were also asked by a reporter last week, about Max. And in that case Max jumped straight on ‘I’m in their heads’. Hence the posts above.
    Maybe in future Max should spend a little time checking out what others actually said and in what context before responding; although with his father one side and Marko the other, I expect all that they feed him is his ego.

    1. That was in response to @passingisoverrated

  7. Max’s remark about LH having a tow was no surprise to me, since the Sky commentators pointed it out straight away. So all Max was doing was pointing out a fact, yet of course children around here have to run with it and turn this place into a schoolyard.

  8. I love reading an independant blog/news feed which is hard to do these days. But what puts me off are low quality comment sections. And I’m sorry @KeithCollantine but poor headlines attract those. To single out that sentence and make it a headline is poor journalism. A more suitable headline would be “Verstappen reflects on RBR pace”. I agree that would be a boring headline and you’d like people to click, fair enough. But then still a better headline would be “More RBR race pace to come”. Still click-worthy but more reflecting the content of the article than what you did now. I can’t join a site and become a member if it is run like that.
    — my 5 cents

    1. @b@baasbas headline seems accurate to me. I’ve got no issue with it.

      1. To me: I see an article which is summed up as interviews about RBR pace, single lap and race pace. Competing times get mentioned, still one gets singled out. The title does not cover the article at all. and I believe it encourages comments like these:

        https://www.racefans.net/2019/11/01/verstappen-fastest-at-cold-and-bumpy-austin-track/#comment-4341920

    2. Who cares don’t let door hit you on way out boy

  9. Well, if there is going to be an argument over what happened in Mexico, Masi is now quoted as saying that the stewards should have penalised Verstappen for colliding with Magnussen and then going off track to pass him – suggesting that it was indeed right to question why he was allowed to get away with it.

Comments are closed.