Max Verstappen says he was worried his own engine would fail after seeing so many Renault-powered cars retire from the Mexican Grand Prix.
Four of the six Renault-powered cars retired from the race, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo first, followed by Brendon Hartley, Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz, leaving just Verstappen and Pierre Gasly to see the chequered flag.
Verstappen, who dominated the race, said he feared his engine could fail too and was thankful that his gap to second-placed Valtteri Bottas was so large he could turn the performance down to reduce the risk of failure.
“I could see a lot of cars blowing up and retiring so I was definitely a bit worried,” said the Dutchman, who claimed his second victory of the year.
“We looked after our engine and everything seemed to work pretty well. I saw on the TV screen Daniel had retired and I saw a Toro Rosso on fire.
“I thought ‘oh God, don’t make this happen to me’, but we turned the engine down.
"I have a new engine so maybe that helped, but Daniel had a new one too."
“I had my bad luck at the beginning of the year so I am very happy that this time nothing happened to me.”
Renault admitted after the race that they miscalculated the cooling requirements in Mexico and pushed the performance a little too much.
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