Verstappen was troubled by Renault cars 'blowing up'

Max Verstappen admits he was troubled by seeing other Renault-powered cars failing left and right as he comfortably led Sunday's Mexican GP.

The Red Bull driver muscled his way ahead at Turn 1, gaining the upper hand on Sebastian Vettel before pulling away and establishing a substantial lead which he was left to manage fairly easily for the remainder of the race.

"I could see a lot of cars blowing up and retiring so I was definitely a bit worried," said the 20-year-old who claimed his third career win in F1.

"We looked after our engine and everything seemed to work pretty well. I saw on the TV screen [teammate Daniel Ricciardo] had retired and I saw a Toro Rosso on fire.

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"I thought ‘oh God, don’t make this happen to me’ – we turned the engine down. I have a new engine so maybe that helped, but Daniel had a new one too.

"I had my bad luck at the beginning of the year so I am very happy that this time nothing happened to me."

The Dutchman's dominant win was exactly what he needed after last weekend's disappointing penalty call in Austin.

"I knew the car was good but I didn’t know it was going to be this good," he said.

"After last week I was fired up and motivated to do well, and after yesterday I was giving it everything.

"I missed out on pole but I was determined to win this race, I gave it my all at the start and Turn 1.

"I had a great slipstream and was able to get alongside [Vettel] on the outside, we had a little touch, but from then onwards I could do my own race."

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