Max Verstappen has described his first win in Formula One as ‘unbelievable’ as the 18-year-old stunned everyone at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
After the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided at Turn 4 on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix, a perfect strategy combined with excellent tyre management gave Verstappen an unlikely win in Barcelona.
Verstappen replaced Daniil Kvyat for the remainder of the 2016 season, a decision which many questioned. After today’s race, everyone can see why the decision has been made.
The Dutch sensational held off Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen for the final 20 laps, which he described the last 10 laps as ‘an endurance race’.
“This race felt like an endurance race, especially the last 10 laps,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe I was leading the race; we held onto the tyres and did the best strategy possible – it’s unbelievable.
“The first stint on Soft tyres I could keep up quite well, after the Mercedes crashed, but sometimes you start to destroy the tyres so I lost ground and we decided to pit – on Mediums the car felt great.
“I was managing my speed, my tyres, everything… we did the best strategy possible.
“I had a bit of pressure from Kimi behind but it is difficult to overtake so it was a case of not making mistakes, no front locking, it worked. I was targeting a podium but to get a win straight away is amazing.”
Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo came home fourth, after opting for a three-stop strategy and suffering a puncture late on.
