ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Red Bull team
leadership on Monday continued to heap praise on driver Max Verstappen’s cool
under pressure as he won the
Dutch Grand Prix while Ferrari’s boss lamented his
team’s meltdown.
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Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko, a 79-year-old
motor racing veteran, said it was extraordinary how Verstappen adapted to
dramatic changes in circumstance and strategy, as he did when Mercedes were
faster than Red Bull late in the race.
“We saw a fantastic Max ... the pressure didn’t
affect him at all. He stayed so focused on the race,” Marko told specialist
site RacingNews365.
“It’s unbelievable what this guy — or this boy! — is
doing. He’s almost 25, so he’s a young man. Yet, in the car, he is on his own
planet. No pressure affects him at all.”
Verstappen had to ride his luck at Zandvoort and
take advantage of a late safety car re-start to pass seven-time champion Lewis
Hamilton of Mercedes and win.
After the race on Sunday, team chief
Christian Horner praised Vertsappen’s approach.
“Max was in the zone from the moment he arrived to
the moment he saw the checkered flag,” said Horner.
Verstappen’s fourth consecutive win gave him a
109-point lead in the drivers’ championship ahead of Red Bull team-mate Sergio
Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The victory put the Dutch driver within
reach of a second straight world title.
George Russell finished second for Mercedes, proving
they are emerging as a threat for the final seven races this year, with Leclerc
third and Hamilton fourth.
Ferrari troubles
Carlos Sainz in the second
Ferrari collected a five-second penalty for a pit-lane unsafe release that
dropped from fifth on the road to eighth in the result.
The Spaniard’s problems summed up Ferrari’s weekend
and much of their season as they continued to deliver botched tactics and
pit-stop errors that undermined the potential of their car and drivers.
Team boss Mattia Binotto said a decision to pit
Sainz had been made too late leading to his 12-seconds delay at his first stop.
He did not say ‘before Monza’, but given the
expectation surrounding the team ahead of next Sunday’s contest in Italy,
Binotto will be urging Ferrari to find a solution rapidly to prevent them being
left behind by Red Bull at their home event.
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