Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen revels in ‘risky’ overtakes

Max Verstappen is aware some of his overtaking manoeuvres in the Belgian Grand Prix were “risky”, but says they were necessary to score points.

The Toro Rosso rookie started from 18th place on the grid due to a power unit change, but worked his way through the field to eighth place. Having pulled an excellent move on Felipe Nasr around the outside of Blanchimont, Verstappen failed with a late move to pass Kimi Raikkonen around the outside in to Les Combes but he says he had to be aggressive to reach the top ten.

“What an entertaining race, it was a great achievement to start from so far back and finish eighth in the end!” Verstappen said. “My pace was very strong and I enjoyed the overtaking, so we can be very happy about the race. The car felt great and we were able to keep up with Ferrari and Williams.

“I really enjoyed it and even if some of the overtakes were a bit risky, when you start from so far back you have to go for it if you want to move forward. It wasn’t an easy start to the weekend, but we managed to do a great job in the end and I would like to thank the team for the big effort and my home crowd for the support, we can all be really happy with P8!”

And team principal Franz Tost described Verstappen’s performance as “fantastic” to come through the field to challenge Raikkonen.

“Max, who was starting at the back of the grid due to the 10-place grid penalty, drove a fantastic race,” Tost said. “To finish in P8 and to fight with a Ferrari for P7 shows how competitive the car was and how good Max was driving.”

Click here for Sunday's gallery of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.