Max Verstappen admitted that he was left surprised to see how quick Lando Norris was, and he also said that he would have never been able to match his race pace on used tires.
The Red Bull driver was a bit unlucky with the safety car period during the Miami Grand Prix. However, he had the chance to attack Norris for P1 after the restart. Despite that, the British driver never looked back and put 7.6 seconds between himself and the Dutchman.
Usually, fans are used to seeing Verstappen easily get past his rivals even though he finds himself behind, but in Miami, it wasn’t the case.
“Well, I mean, I didn’t really see him in the beginning because I was more focused on Oscar behind and the Ferraris.
“But then I boxed, and I heard the pace that he was doing on the used Mediums. I was like, ‘I mean, that’s quite insane’. I mean, I would have never been able to do so.
“So I knew even if there wouldn’t have been a Safety Car that when he would come out on fresh tires that I would have had to push on quite a lot to be able to keep him behind.”
Verstappen also admitted that luck helps you sometimes, but other times, it’s not the case. Finally, he said that Red Bull clearly didn’t have the pace to win, therefore he settled for P2.
“Then actually, I mean, the Safety Car came. Yeah, I mean… It’s racing,” he added.
“Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you. And even with that Safety Car, we still had all the opportunities to win today, but we’re clearly not quick enough after that Safety Car.
“And once I realized that, I just settled in and tried to come home in second.”