F1 | Red Bull, Max Verstappen triumphs: “Fantastic teamwork”

Max Verstappen's Grand Prix in France was like riding a roller coaster: the Dutchman - who yesterday began to build the feat to take away the French fiefdom from Mercedes by winning pole position - risked destroying everything already in the corners one, going wide on the outside and handing the lead to title rival Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen chased the seven-time world champion until the Brackley tram made the first move, calling Valtteri Bottas, third, to the pits: this is how Mercedes puts Hamilton's victory in danger. Red Bull reacts, Verstappen returns using the white compound and accomplishes a feat by setting fast laps, which allow him to overtake Hamilton at the pit stop. Everything seems settled, but instead Verstappen is no longer able to keep up with the pace with the hard compound: the Red Bull wall therefore opts for the second stop, while the other three remain on the track. Verstappen restarts on the medium compound, with Perez skillfully stepping aside to let his teammate go after the two Mercedes: Bottas out, Verstappen has a few laps to catch Hamilton, who incredibly offers no resistance and lets his rival fly towards victory. Verstappen wins, in masterly fashion, with two stops behind him, and takes home his third victory of the season, cementing his lead in the drivers' standings: he is now twelve points ahead of the Mercedes driver.

"We won this race thanks to fantastic team work, and to finish with a double podium on a track like this shows the great work everyone is doing here at the track, in Milton Keynes and in the factory and at Honda – said Max after taking the victory – obviously I would have liked to put some distance and win in peace, but that's not always the case in Formula 1 and today we really worked hard. You can see how close the two teams are. and winning with this strategy with two laps to go is rewarding. It was definitely not an easy race and I got screwed in turn one, lost the rear and had to go off track, giving up first place to Lewis. Obviously I was irritated at the moment, but I knew there was a long race ahead of us, I had to concentrate. In the first stint I didn't have the pace to fight with Lewis, so we took a risk and went in first, and honestly I didn't expect the undercut to work so well that we ended up ahead of him. They were pushing hard to overtake me, but luckily I stayed in front and knew I couldn't make any mistakes. We decided to pit again, a strategy that worked because the car adapted well to the conditions towards the end, as the wind died down and the track got rubbery. In the end it was the right decision for both cars and I ended up on the podium with Checo. We must enjoy this triumph before returning to the track in Austria".