Immediately after the sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit, Max Verstappen expressed moderate satisfaction with his third-place finish, especially knowing that he had gained valuable points in the World Championship standings over leader Lando Norris. After all, the McLaren driver finished ‘only’ in eighth place. “That’s positive,” said the four-time world champion from Red Bull.
“I did try to take the lead, but of course I also had Oscar Piastri behind me who was pushing. In the last eight laps, I no longer had the speed and it was a matter of survival. It was tough, I had to manage the tires mainly,” Max Verstappen told interviewer Jacques Villeneuve on the grid.
Verstappen: “We’re going to try to improve the car for the qualifying. We’re going to study the data thoroughly and see what we can improve. We generally just lack some speed, which means you have to push more and the tires wear out sooner. That makes it very difficult.”
