Max Verstappen feared his Hard tyres wouldn’t make it to the end of his victorious run in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, saying his Red Bull felt “like driving on ice.”
The reigning Formula 1 champion looked in complete control of proceedings as the front runners bolted on the Hard compound, streaking away from Lando Norris behind.
However, as the race drew to a close, Norris closed in on the race leader at a rapid rate and just seven-tenths separated Verstappen from his pursuer across the finish line.
“I’m not sure I can bring this to the end,” Verstappen thought after 10 laps on the Hard tyre.
“You know, because the tyres just fell out of the operating window, and yeah, it was just like driving on ice, really snappy, and just you can feel when the tyres are not gripping up anymore.
“Like Turn 7, I almost ended up in the grandstand, from my feeling, at some point.
“So yeah, it’s just very difficult, really weird lines that I had to take.
“But yeah, those last 10 laps, you know, I was really trying to survive with the tyres, and then suddenly Lando [Norris] really picked up the pace.
“I was not sure if I could keep him behind, but I was just trying to do the best I could, pushing as hard as I could with the grip that I had, and yeah, luckily it was just enough laps.”
Norris claimed he was “praying for one more lap,” feeling like he just missed out on an opportunity to overthrow Verstappen and claim victory.
The Dutchman admitted he was concerned by Norris’ advances, but leant on his experience to maintain a cool head, keeping things mistake-free to hold on to a hard-fought win.
Verstappen claimed the best thing to do was stay within his limits, even if his grip was fading.
“It was like half a second a lap, I was like, that’s a lot,” Verstappen said.
“But at the other end, you can’t do anything about it, so I was just trying to do my pace.
“You cannot suddenly try and force a half a second out of it when you don’t have the balance.
“So I was just trying to, yeah, really not make mistakes, really try to drive around the balance issues that I had and be quick on the straight.
“So that’s basically what I think helped me a bit at the end also. But with the rear wing that we had, you know, we’re quite fast on the straight.
“That probably helped a bit in the last few laps to defend”
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