I wasn’t trying to pass Hamilton or defend from Piastri

Max Verstappen mentioned he by no means thought he would be capable of battle Lewis Hamilton for victory in right now’s dash race.

The pair shared the entrance row of the grid however Hamilton led away initially and was by no means headed over the 19-lap race.

Though Verstappen closed inside DRS vary of Hamilton at instances earlier within the race, he slipped again and misplaced second place to Oscar Piastri.

“I noticed Lewis saving [his tyres] fairly properly up entrance,” Verstappen advised Sky. “So it was not even about making an attempt to get by, it was simply making an attempt to maintain Oscar behind me, making an attempt to get in Lewis’s DRS to hold in there, principally.”

Verstappen didn’t transfer off-line to defend his place when Piastri bought inside DRS vary of him on the primary straight and moved to strike. He mentioned there was no level making an attempt to withstand the McLaren due to the graining that was growing.

“We now have an excessive amount of deg[radation] as a result of I believe our base tempo is off, so then you definately attempt to cling in there however [you] kill your tyres additionally.

“Then I didn’t put up a battle towards Oscar on the straight, I simply let him by. However then really I believe each of us began to wrestle fairly closely. I believe I wouldn’t have stored him behind anyway.”

George Russell gained a number of seconds on Verstappen in direction of the top of the race however wasn’t capable of assault him as he got here underneath strain from Charles Leclerc.

“I believe I additionally bought fortunate with the vehicles behind, they simply began to battle a bit in direction of the top of the race,” mentioned Verstappen. “However generally the tempo was not that nice, however nonetheless P3, it’s an honest end result for us.”

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