Max Verstappen is certain he would have been able to pass Lewis Hamilton for second place if a yellow flag hadn’t prevented him.
Kevin Magnussen went off at turn 12 shortly before the end of the race and the corner remained under yellow flags until the chequered flag, depriving drives of one of the best opportunities for overtaking on the track.Asked whether he believes he would have passed HAmilton without that, Verstappen said “yes, absolutely.”
“Just because of that we had to lift off otherwise, I would have be definitely gone by,” he added. “But that’s how it is, sometimes these things happen.”
Verstappen also revealed he had been unaware he was driving with a damaged floor.
“Overall we had a really good race,” he said. “I was just struggling with some weird oversteer in the car.
“Initially I thought it was [that] they said it was my front wing which had a little bit of damage. But after the race, I looked at the car and I was missing a big piece of my floor in front of the rear tyre so that definitely cost me a lot of lap time today.
“I don’t know when it happened, but already quite quickly into the race I had this weird behaviour from the car which I had not felt before. So that’s a bit unfortunate, otherwise I think we could have been stronger today.
“But still to be on the podium here after a very positive weekend in general I think there was a really great achievement for us.”
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Marty
3rd November 2019, 23:01
Yeah Hamilton is like the most lucky driver ever.
John H (@john-h)
3rd November 2019, 23:37
Having watched 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016 seasons, I can assure you he is not “the most lucky driver ever”.
nonfanboy
4th November 2019, 2:07
I can assure you that he is….
David B
4th November 2019, 2:54
Bit salty are we Marty? ha
You make your own luck. He destroys everyone in his path.
S3rg10 (@s3rg10)
4th November 2019, 9:17
I think Marty is being sarcastic.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
4th November 2019, 22:25
I don’t think so. Ham is one of the luckiest F1 drivers ever. You cannot make your own “luck” because then it’s not luck.
slowmo (@slowmo)
3rd November 2019, 23:11
Meanwhile he’s likely killed the mileage on that PU running it on full power for a dozen laps.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
3rd November 2019, 23:18
@slowmo
Good point. I guess he got the hunter’s taste. Engineer sounded a bit overwhelmed when VER asked for full power. Should have reminded him it was only for 2nd place.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
3rd November 2019, 23:12
Right, 82 lucky wins, 6 lucky championships.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
3rd November 2019, 23:20
@greenflag
luckier than Clark, Moss and Senna anyway
Joseph (@bigjoe)
3rd November 2019, 23:15
I started feeling sorry for LH when MV came on the radio I WANT FULL POWER.
MV must have been ringing that car’s neck. I really didn’t know what to expect, whether LH would slide off the track if his tires went. Then I remembered Kimi shredded his last year and held on (Monza?)
Would normally want Max to have got him, but I couldn’t take that off Lewis.
Wish they could bring forward 2021 rules. I’d happily wipe my slate clean in driver support.
w0o0dy
3rd November 2019, 23:18
Seems logical as Hamilton could now save hybrid energy normally used on the straight, could cruise the straight without having to worry about Max within DRS range (no drs under yellow).
But Hamilton did quite a good job this GP. Let’s hope for three really competitive teams to fight it out with all they’ve got.. wouldn’t that be a welcome change after the Mercedes era?
In the end this championship was never really a race.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
3rd November 2019, 23:25
2021 should be possible. Merc will win next year though.
To be fair to Lewis he’s got to start getting tired next season I reckon and could be a real slog. Looking like he might not have qually sewn up anymore.
Jockey Ewing
4th November 2019, 1:57
Probably because he wants to have 8 WDC titles to beat Schumacher in this field, and he realised it wont be simple anymore. Especially if Ferrari will be this fast, and if they are completely legit. Actually without engineering insights, and the tons of data analisys going in the background almost everyone could be skeptic in the actual strategy, and could not make optimal pit stop decisions or laptime targets while driving. Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Ricciardo, Verstappen will be very hard opponents. Hopefully another year at Williams wont break Russell, because he’s very good.
I like to cheer underdogs as I can’t really find my top favourites after Senna, Schumacher and Hill, but at least i can have a lot of excitement this way. Luckily the superlicense points system working quite well for a while to keep out pay drivers, i like the new rookies.
Today the resource management of the Lewis’ part of the team was really amazing while escaping from Bottas until they were able to do it. I expected a much faster pass after that big laptime difference at the start of Bottas’ second stint.
But again we see how much left in those tyres, and Hamilton started to lap much faster for quite a long while.
This Mercedes car has the chance to score the most constructor points ever, even if it’s not that obvious at first sight, because competition got stronger.
Robbie (@robbie)
3rd November 2019, 23:42
I just know that had you told me at the start of the season, RBR’s first with Honda albeit with the STR year before that, that they’d be within a hair of the Mercedes’ and ahead of the Ferraris at some races, I’d say that was a tall order for this year. Max, RBR, Honda, and Albon have not a thing to hang their heads over. Yeah they needed a few extra components too, but any team would take that in exchange for acceptable performance any day. Onward and upward for them.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
4th November 2019, 1:49
@robbie
I didn’t think it was that close especially on race day. They did finish third which was pretty much expected, two wins, that’s good. But taking everything else into account they done pretty much as they should have, the stand out team I think is McLaren.
HAAS, Ferrari were a disappointment, Renault was a disaster, Merc was just in another league at first and were really untouchable by the summer break, it was just a matter of when they officially took the titles.
I’m hoping for more great races and a competitive yr in 2020 with McLaren, RB, Merc and Ferrari being much closer. If Renault can start to reap the benefits of the new recruits and the upgraded facilities…well you never know :)
NeverElectric
4th November 2019, 0:29
Coulda….woulda….shoulda….didn’t-ah….
lol
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
4th November 2019, 13:00
Like this solid comment! If, then, else etc. It is mostly bar talk.
Stuart Kent (@s-d)
4th November 2019, 2:09
I was surprised we didn’t see the race finish under a SC or VSC after the KMag incident. If anyone else had suffered the same sort of brake failure (and if they did, it would almost surely occur at T12 also, even with waved yellows), they’d be very likely to follow the same trajectory and endanger KMag or marshals attending to his car.
LosD (@losd)
4th November 2019, 8:17
@s-d I’m pretty sure the yellow in itself lowered speeds enough that T12 no longer was a probable failure point for the brakes. And even if one did fail, the speeds surely would be low enough not to reach him?
Of course, better safe than sorry… It may very well have been kept back due to the VER/HAM fight going on, though that would be a terrible reason to skip safety.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
4th November 2019, 6:21
‘Definitely’ I like it how Verstappen is so self-conscious. Bottas was ran of the road when trying for the first time.
But in some ways it is true, he was right on the gearbox before the straight, DRS was ready, he would have pounced. Then how Lewis would defend is up to him. With title on the line maybe he would have just bagged 3rd place and be done with it.
BoRa (@bnwllc3)
4th November 2019, 9:26
I don’t agree that he would’ve past Hamilton without yellow flag. In Mexico he clearly acknowledged everybody that he doesn’t obey the yellow flag rule. Poor Max, incosistency from every aspects.
magon4 (@magon4)
4th November 2019, 11:37
I think he would have passed. But he didn’t, so that’s that.
TheRedBaron (@theredbaron)
4th November 2019, 20:14
He never said “definitely”. He gave several interviews where he mentioned “could have”. This site is becoming anti-verstappen, as well as the fans on this forum.
And nope I am not. I am a Vettel fan for years despite his errors in last years.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
4th November 2019, 22:28
Nah the site is not anti Verstappen but he does shoot his mouth off with all sorts of BS talk which is why the comments reflect what he says.