Max Verstappen had predicted on Saturday that the third place was the highest achievable position. However, even that proved to be too much to ask for. It wasn’t Verstappen’s fault, he extracted the maximum from his Red Bull. “But I was never really in a battle with Charles Leclerc,” he said.
The Dutchman started from P4 and that was also the position he held after 44 laps. “Overtaking was difficult in any case. At one point I was close, with a move in Eau Rouge. But then you lose so much grip, the car becomes unstable. That makes it difficult.”
Once the drivers switched to slicks, according to Verstappen, it was all over. “Leclerc was able to pull away a little bit each lap, that was the feeling I had. Due to a mistake, he lost some time at one point, about a second or so. Then I was able to catch up a bit, but in the end, I was never really in a battle with him.”
