Max Verstappen believes the time he lost behind Charles Leclerc cost him a chance to challenge the McLarens in the Sprint race at Formula 1‘s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Verstappen lost two points to championship rival Lando Norris, who capitalised on team orders to lead a McLaren 1-2 as the Red Bull driver came home in third place.
The Dutchman mounted a charge late on in the 24-lap encounter, but he came up short as a prolonged period tracking Leclerc gave him too much ground to make up.
Verstappen had been chasing Leclerc for several laps when an error into Turn 1 on Lap 18 gave him the impetus to complete the move into Turn 4 to seize third place.
Despite his disappointment that he was powerless to prevent McLaren’s maximum points haul, Verstappen derived encouragement from Red Bull’s speed in race trim.
“I think we had good pace,” Verstappen told media including Motorsport Week post-race in Brazil.
“Just I got stuck in at the DRS train. So I had to wait for my moment to have a go at Charles.
“He had a few moments in the race and then he made a mistake in Turn 1. So then I had a good run out of Turn 3 and I could get him.
“But unfortunately a bit too late. But there was also not much else that I could do because when everyone is just in a DRS train, you can’t attack. That was it.
“But the pace is good. It seemed like we could at least be in that fight which hasn’t really been the case the last few races, so I think that’s promising.”
Red Bull has race pace to rival McLaren in Brazil
Asked whether he had the pace to fight the McLarens had he passed Leclerc earlier, he answered: “Yeah, of course, but I was stuck in a DRS train so you cannot pass.”
But Verstappen’s result is provisional as an incident where he came alongside Oscar Piastri as a Virtual Safety Car period ended on the final lap is under investigation.
“It got very tight with Oscar,” he recalled. “We were getting close to each other then we had to brake.”
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