Verstappen 'lucky and unlucky' to miss out on victory

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was looking on the bright side of a dramatic finish to the 2020 British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.

He had been the only driver remotely in contention to do anything to thwart a Mercedes 1-2 in the race, with with two laps to go it looked like he would have to settle for third place after.

But then a tyre failure saw Valtteri Bottas go run off with two laps to go. And seconds later, a similar issue hit race leader Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the race

• Hamilton clings on for victory amid last lap tyre drama

Verstappen went into that lap 30 seconds behind the limping Mercedes, and cut the gap to just five by the time Hamilton managed to cross the finish line and snatch victory from the jaws of imminent defeat.

Verstappen would almost certainly have won if not for making an emergency pit stop of his own in response to Bottas' problems and in an attempt to pick up the extra championship point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

"It's lucky and unlucky, you know," he told Sky Sports after the race. "They were once again too quick."

"The tyres at one point they didn't look great, with like ten laps to go, so I was already on the radio [saying] 'the right front doesn't look very pretty.'

"Then of course Valtteri got a puncture. I came on to the radio [saying] I'm gonna back off. Then they boxed me to go for the fastest lap.

"Then of course, unfortunately Lewis got a puncture himself. But you know, I'm very happy with second. it's a very good result for us again," he said. "We did good, not bad - good points, good podium."

Up to then the race had been quite a lonely one for Verstappen who was unchallenged in third place all afternoon.

"It was pretty lonely, I was just trying to manage my pace and look after the tyres," he admitted. "I told my engineer to drink, to stay hydrated - that's very important around here."

Verstappen's second place today means that he's now within six points of Bottas in the drivers championship, albeit 36 points behind Hamilton.

"We should be happy with second," he insisted. "But when you have this ... Anyway, it's still good."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner defended the team's decision to bring in Verstappen even though it cost him a chance of victory, explaining that they had been concerned that Verstappen could suffer the same fate as Bottas.

"We were particularly concerned with Valtteri getting that puncture, because Max had reported big vibrations as well," Horner told British broadcaster Channel 4.

"We elected to make the pitstop - and the tyre that's actually come off the car, it's got a lot of cuts in it as well," Horner revealed. "It's no guarantee he would have got to the end of the race.

"The tyres started to pick up some blistering, and I think once they get exposed any kind of debris on the track can puncture the tyre quite easily," he explained. "Once they get that band [of blisters] you are quite vulnerable.

"There was a few incidents today. Maybe [there was] a bit of debris out on track. There's three or four cars I think had the punctures at the end there.

"Lewis' luck rolls with him at the moment, that we missed out on the victory. But congratulations to [Mercedes], they had a very dominant car today."

"While it feels we missed out a bit with Lewis' luck at the end there, if we had have stayed out there's no guarantee that we would have gone round the lap without picking up a puncture.

"So while I think we just have to be grateful for what we've benefited from Bottas, [we also] feel a little bit unlucky," he added. "We got the fastest lap, we got the second place.

"Disappointing to miss out on a victory, but I think we'd have taken that before the race."

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