No frustration with late VSC as Verstappen exceeds expectations with Mexican podium

Max Verstappen says the late Virtual Safety Car that prevented him for attacking for second place in the Mexico City Grand Prix was not frustrating, as he has benefited from interruptions in the past.

The defending champion closed a significant gap to Charles Leclerc in a second stint of the race that his race engineer described as “insane,” and was within DRS range starting the penultimate lap. However, Carlos Sainz stopped in the stadium section and the VSC was required to push his car behind a barrier, with the race only restarting on the final lap after Leclerc and Verstappen had passed the main overtaking spots.

“No, not really [frustrating],” Verstappen said. “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 was the only driver in the top eight to start on medium tires and admits he was surprised nobody else followed his strategy, but also didn’t predict he’d have the pace to fight for the top three given Red Bull’s struggles in Mexico.

“Personally, I didn't expect to be on the podium," he said. "I think even in the first stint, it was not really looking like it. I mean, at the time, I thought we were just slow and struggling on tires. I do think then when we swapped to the soft and the others were on mediums, it all looked a bit more competitive.

“Still not to the level of Lando [Norris] if you take the average of the race, but the soft definitely was a better compound to race on, and it all felt a bit better. Overall, to be P3 has been really good on a difficult weekend for us.”

Verstappen had a good start to attack for the top three spots off the line but ended up wide at Turn 1, and then later was involved in a fight with Lewis Hamilton that saw him drop behind Ollie Bearman’s Haas for the first stint. 

“It was very hectic, the beginning of the race for me," Verstappen said. "We had a very good start and then such a long run to Turn 1, and we were on the outside – three, four-wide – so I had bottoming out on that curb. It kept bottoming out all the way, so I almost crashed into the grass.

“Even after that, there was a lot going on. Everyone around me was on soft tires, I was on the medium, and it looked like that was a bit of a struggle. Surviving the first stint, trying to go as long as we could on the tires... Once we bolted on the softs we were a little bit more competitive, a bit happier. It’s been a difficult weekend for us, but to be fighting for P2 with everything that happened in the first few laps, I think it’s still a very strong result.”

Despite the result and closing the gap to the championship leader to 36 points as Norris takes over from Oscar Piastri, Verstappen says the performance shows how hard it will be for him to win this year’s title.

“Lost 10 [points] to Lando, if you look at it like that," he said. "I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. This weekend didn't go perfect.

“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. That's what we need to understand a bit better.”