Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen became Formula 1’s youngest-ever points scorer in Malaysia as he finished seventh.
Just a day after he set a new record for highest grid position with his P6 in qualifying, which also equalled his father Jos’ best-ever starting place, the 17-year-old went on to finish the race in seventh place.
The Toro Rosso youngster made a poor getaway as he slipped down the pack on the opening lap, but he fought back brilliantly and overtook his team-mate Carlos Sainz as well as Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in the process.
In an interview with BBC Sport after the race today, Verstappen despite struggling with the car at first managed to extract the pace and performance needed to score his first points in F1 today and beating Daniil Kvyat’s record of being the youngest ever driver to score points in the sport by two years. Verstappen stated the following:-
‘It was a good day. The first few laps were a bit difficult for me, I struggled a bit with the brakes and the tyres. But when we went on to hard tyres, it worked much better, I found good balance and good rhythm. From there, the car felt great.
‘I really enjoyed that! I’m very happy to have scored my first ever points in F1 and to end seventh! I think we did a great job as a team. The first few laps were a bit tricky for me as I was struggling a lot on the Medium tyres, so we boxed early for the Hard ones and that worked perfectly, the car felt great.
‘We had a few good fights with other competitors and it was good fun. This was the right strategy and we did a great job managing the tyres. I felt well physically, it was quite hot at the end but I was still able to cope with it and be consistent, so I’m happy with that. This is a big boost for the team, we couldn’t have done a better job today.’
Even though Verstappen might have struggled in the opening laps of the race with the car, he was able to overcome that and managed to achieve his first points in Formula One today with a fantastic drive after being on the pace all weekend. It is clear that he had to work hard and battle with way through the grid in order to finish seventh while managing his tyres and was rewarded with his efforts.
In my opinion, Verstappen has shown today that he can race just as good as anyone else and he has proved his doubters wrong today. He has impressed me since watching him last season in F3 and I had no doubts about his abilities even though I still feel that he should have gained more experience under his belt before racing in the sport.
But despite my concerns, Verstappen has beaten the record set by Kvyat today as the youngest ever points scorer in the sport and that is a fantastic achievement. The result today will not only boost Verstappen as a driver and also his confidence; but also his team’s confidence too. If Verstappen can throughout the season keep this level of performance up, extract the pace needed from the car; I think he might just well keep on surprising fans even more throughout the course of the season.
In my eyes, Verstappen has proven already that he is mature enough to be in the sport and can race well on the track if everything comes together; but will this continue in China in two weeks time? We shall have to wait and see.
Images courtesy of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Image Bank
