He took another hard hit from Red Bull's Lando Norris, but Max Verstappen took it easy. According to him, second place is a good result in Singapore, but he admitted that without improvement, they have no chance against McLaren anywhere at the moment.
This time, the start was not a hope for Max Verstappen either: unlike Zandvoort, he was unable to attack the McLaren from pole position in the first few metres, and thus took a superior win from start to finish.
Verstappen's deficit at the finish line was 21 seconds, but if Norris had raced with the same energy as he did in the first stage, he could have been 30 seconds ahead. That says it all about the balance of power: today McLaren is doing to Red Bull what Red Bull did to McLaren at the beginning of the year.
The three-time world champion's main goal was to make amends on Saturday, and he succeeded. Norris scored the lowest number of points in a win, seven, to reduce the gap between them to 52 points.
“On a weekend where we knew we were going to struggle, second place is a very good result. Of course, we are not satisfied with second place. Now we have to keep improving. We are trying.”
Verstappen commented on his race.
“I quickly felt like I couldn’t keep up and I was running my own race, keeping my momentum even though I wasn’t as fast as Lando. The first stage was a bit difficult because the tyres were very worn and I slid a lot. That cost me a lot of time, and the second stage was actually more competitive. Of course, it’s still not what we wanted, but overall it was more promising. We have to be better in terms of basic pace and long stage pace as well.”
Asked if he was surprised by Norris's big lead, Verstappen said: “It didn't surprise me, because at some point in the first stage the balance wasn't nice and I lost a lot of time compared to myself.”
Max Verstappen (Image: XPB)The current will not be enough even in the normal course.
According to team boss Christian Horner, the second stage on hard rubber was very competitive. “Congratulations to Lando and McLaren, they had a really good car this weekend! They were really fast, especially in the first stint. It was better for us on the hard tyres, but the gap was really big, and on a track like this, where it's difficult to overtake, it's really difficult.”
“If we go back to Friday night, if they had said we would qualify for the front row and come second, with a big advantage over the rest of the field, we would have signed!”
“Lando had a big advantage, especially on the medium tyres. The hard didn’t show much. However, I didn’t see a single car in the field that was faster than Max.” Attract attention.
Verstappen wasn't too keen on it. He noted: “It's not an ideal track for us, but I don't think we can compete with McLaren at the moment, even on a normal track. So we have to improve our performance.”
But until then, they have to make do with what they have, and according to Verstappen, that has worked out well.
“I think it was more than the limit. The McLaren team was very strong and one of them finished behind me. Overall it was a good race. We were very slow in front of Lando, but this track is not good for us anyway. Also, based on the last races, McLaren is the better team. So second place is good for us here.”
His position in the league is no longer good. McLaren is far behind them among the constructors, and Red Bull's position looks increasingly hopeless, so the Woking car is clearly the better car. “This is a problem of course.. We are behind, but I think that in the coming races we will be better and stronger in the competition” Verstappen said.
Max Verstappen (Image: XPB)Waiting for Austin and Perez points
Red Bull could be preparing for Austin with the developments they expect to solve the car's balance issues. According to their feelings, they have already found the direction, but whether their package will be enough for him is still a big question. In addition, they are still missing points for Sergio Perez, who is now 10th.
“We need two competitors who will give it their all.” Horner stated. “Checo had a good weekend in Baku, he struggled this weekend. We need more consecutive weekends like McLaren with two drivers on the podium. These races bring a lot of points and make a difference. So we have to make sure that Checo gets back in the fight as well.
“I think we will fight until the end of the championship. Our advantage is 52 points, there are six races left, but there will also be three sprint races, so we still have a lot of races ahead of us. We will fight hard in the next tri-weekend, and then in the last tri-weekend as well.” – Red Bull boss, who particularly praised his team for putting in a huge effort this weekend, as well as Verstappen, who got everything out of the car.
Christian Horner (Image: XPB)
