Max Verstappen says that Red Bull did “everything right” after he dominated the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take his second victory of the season.
Verstappen led every lap of the race from pole position and never looked under threat from the pursuing Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton during the 55 lap event.“It was really enjoyable,” said Verstappen. “It was already enjoyable after yesterday.
“Today we had a good start and from then on of course you look after the tyres. But the car had really good balance. We did basically everything right.”
After starting 13 of this year’s 17 races from either second or third on the grid, Verstappen took his first pole position this weekend. The Red Bull driver said starting from the front gave him a significant advantage over the Mercedes.
“I think once you start up front you can control the pace a bit more and it makes your life a bit easier,” Verstappen said.
Red Bull took advantage of the early Safety Car caused by Sergio Perez’s retirement to pit onto the hard tyres for a long second stint. Although Verstappen raised concerns over whether his tyres would last the 44 laps to the end of the race, he was able to manage both his tyres and the gap to Bottas behind over the lengthy stint.
“I saw that they were dropping off behind me so then I could take it a bit easier,” Verstappen explained.
“Of course I had to go through a bit of traffic and backmarkers, but overall it was just a very strong race I think for the team.”
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Dean Franklin (@deanfranklin)
13th December 2020, 16:04
Dominant victory. Simply a masterclass from Max.
dan
13th December 2020, 16:22
Have to wonder what Red Bull should of done in Istanbul, Albon was right up max’s … that race and today the Jolyon Palmer level talent done well. So enough of this outperforming the car like and Rodber believe
bosyber (@bosyber)
13th December 2020, 16:23
Yeah, it was one of those races – we have seen them from Hamilton (and Vettel in his time at Red Bull), not much happened, and what happened mostly just resulted in it being more static (good summary Horner about it being one of the more static races this year) – but can’t blame Verstappen for doing all he could to get that win. Don’t think he had many such race wins, so easy to grant it to him.
dan
13th December 2020, 16:27
Ves won as many races this year as Bottas did, just shows the level Lewis is at losing out on a race aswell. And let’s be honest Max choked 2nd in the champ away. Istanbul shows you that, you know when Albon does well, Istanbul and today the RB is a great car. The fact Ham was less than 3 secs behind over a 1 min 40 lap with covid says it all for Bottas. It is time to go you got broke in . Lewis and Max were clearly the drivers of the season along with Checo and Leclerc. Driver of the day today was Ricciardo no doubt.
Sheriff Buford T Justice
13th December 2020, 16:48
Hardly a masterclass when his rival had his engine turned down, won the WDC three races ago and finished the season with a 133 point lead.