Verstappen hails ‘incredible’ mechanics after pre-race crash

Max Verstappen labelled his runner-up position at the Hungarian Grand Prix as “like a victory” and praised his Red Bull mechanics in the wake of his pre-race crash.

Wet weather struck the Hungaroring during the build-up to the race and Verstappen lost control of his RB16 en route to the grid at Turn 12.

Verstappen slid into the wall, causing damage to the front-left side of the car, but hobbled around to the grid, where his mechanics got to work on repairing the RB16.

The fix was achieved with second to spare before the five-minute signal – at which point the tyres must be fitted – and Verstappen was able to take up his grid spot of seventh.

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From there he carved his way up to third on the opening lap and quickly grabbed second from Lance Stroll, holding the spot through until the chequered flag, despite late pressure from Valtteri Bottas.

“The mechanics did an amazing job to fix the car, I don’t know how they did it,” said Verstappen.

“It was incredible, so to pay them back with a second place, I’m very pleased with that.

“The first lap was very crucial and from there on we had the right calls and we had good pace, we kept on doing our thing, to be able to split the Mercedes is good for us.

“I thought I was not going to race so second is like a victory today.”

On the late pressure from Bottas, Verstappen said: “I was just trying to do my own pace and could see he was catching like a second per lap, but following here is tricky, so as soon as he was within 1.5s seconds it was a bit more difficult for him.

“On the last lap we also had traffic in front which didn’t make it easy for me on those old tyres, but we got second.”