F1, Max Verstappen extends a hand to Charles Leclerc

A lucid analysis, and a hand extended to the great opponent.

Max Verstappen comments on his victory in the French Grand Prix, achieved in part thanks to Charles Leclerc’s retirement. And if at the race in progress he had taken care to ask the Red Bull wall how his colleague was doing, at the end of the day the world champion extended a hand to the Ferrari driver.

“We had a good pace from the start and I was able to put pressure on Charles. But being in pursuit in such heat and with the tires overheating so much is not easy at all,” Verstappen admitted. “I tried once to set up an overtake, but it was difficult. So we tried to keep calm and stay close to Leclerc.”

Then the two key moments of the race: the Red Bull tire change and then Leclerc’s accident. “We came back a little early, after that you never know how the race will develop. Today our car was fast, but of course Charles was unlucky. I hope he is okay. After his retirement I simply had to administer my race, managing the tires,” was Verstappen’s analysis.

The Dutchman then took stock of the rainbow battle against Leclerc: “I try to bring home the highest possible haul of points. Sometimes you have to understand that you can’t attack full out, and you can only limit yourself to waiting for the race to end. That’s what we did here, but there are still a lot of Grand Prix ahead of us to run. We picked up a lot of points, though, so today was a great day for us.”