Verstappen hopes Red Bull "won't experience a weekend like this again"
Having struggled for pace across the Mexio City Grand Prix, Max Verstappen reckoned he hopes Red Bull "won't experience a weekend like this again" in the remaining four races.
Following a tough time in qualifying, Max Verstappen was eager to get the maximum out of the 71-lap encounter in Mexico to keep his championship aspirations alive.
The Dutchman endured an eventful time in the opening stages of the Mexico City Grand Prix. He approached Turn 1 with Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc alongside him.
The Dutchman got onto the dirty kerbs and had to cut across the grass. He ceded a place after returning to the track, dropping to fourth behind Hamilton.
Verstappen attacked Hamilton a few laps later, forcing the Briton wide. The two champions banged wheels, and Verstappen dropped to fifth place behind Bearman. He stayed out long on his mediums, made a late change to Pirelli’s red-walled softs on which he displayed a very strong performance.
The reigning champion found himself third after many of his rivals made a second stop, and he even managed to close in on second-placed Leclerc, but he an out of time to make a move thanks to a final lap VSC.
As for his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, he started on the mediums just like Verstappen. Although he was running in the points, he could not make the same strategy as his team mate work out there.
On the soft tyres late on he picked off Hadjar, but that was when his momentum stalled and he came home just outside the points.
Asked whether he was frustrated by the virtual safety car in the dying stages of the 71-encounter at Mexico City, Verstappen said: "No, not really. I mean, sometimes the safety car has been very nice to me as well in my career.
"So sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It's how it goes in racing. Would have been fun, I think, to the end. Well, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending, but it would have been a fun ending, I think, for everyone to watch."
Verstappen founds himself 104 points adrift of then championship leader Oscar Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix. With his resurgance since the Monza round, the Dutchman is now only 26 points away from the championship lead.
Asked how bullish he is feeling with four events to go, Verstappen said: "I mean, I lost 10 to Lando, if you look at it like that. So, I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. And this weekend didn't go perfect. So that's your answer.
"I think it's going to be tough, but let's see what we can do in other tracks. I hope, of course, we won't experience a weekend like this again, but it still shows that we're not quick in every scenario. And that's what we need to understand, I think, a bit better."
