Max Verstappen secured the 65th victory of his Formula 1 career at Imola in Northern Italy. The Dutchman not only demonstrated that he is still very much in the race for the title, but also that the unpredictable RB21 seems to have regained the pace to keep up with the McLarens. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko could not be prouder of his star driver.
With a masterful overtaking move on Oscar Piastri in the opening round of the GP Emilia-Romagna, Max Verstappen essentially secured his 65th Grand Prix victory right away. An impressive achievement, considering that the Dutchman had been struggling with balance issues on his RB21 on Friday. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko is therefore incredibly proud of his star driver, who was able to pull away from the two McLarens right at the start of the race.
“We were simply faster today. We were at least as good as McLaren in terms of tyre wear,” Marko jubilantly tells Austrian ORF. The four-time world champion was almost twenty seconds ahead of nearest competitor Lando Norris, until a safety car in lap 46 brought the field back together. According to Marko, the laps after the restart were therefore Verstappen’s ‘most impressive’.
‘Thank God for such a result’
“Then Max was pulling away by a second or more each lap. So it works and it’s the first time he has a car, more or less since a year, that is balanced, that does what he wants,” Marko continues. “And then you see, thank God, such a result.” With his victory, Verstappen closes the gap by ten points on championship leader Oscar Piastri. The Red Bull driver is now only 22 points behind the Australian, less than the number of points a driver gets for one race win.
