Max Verstappen says he was forced to fight tooth and nail to claim his tenth career Sprint win in F1 in Saturday’s event at the Red Bull Ring as he endured an onslaught from his McLaren rivals.
The Red Bull charger started from pole position, but found himself under immediate pressure from Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
During the thrilling battle that marked the opening laps of the 24-lap race, Norris managed a daring overtake on Verstappen at Turn 3, only for the Dutchman to swiftly reclaim the lead at the following corner with a bold move of his own.
But the Briton’s aggressive maneuvering also allowed Piastri to capitalize and snatch second place.
While Verstappen ultimately secured victory with a comfortable four-second lead, he acknowledged that it hadn’t been a case of smooth sailing.
“Definitely in the beginning it was quite tricky,” commented the three-time world champion. “I mean, Lando stayed in my DRS and I was just struggling a little bit for grip at that point as well.
“And yeah, it’s just very difficult to judge around here how much you lose through the corners following and how much you gain with the DRS around the lap, because of course, it’s a triple activation, which is a lot.
“So yeah, we had to really fight for it. We had a few good close battles here and there, defending, overtaking.
“And basically, once I could clear the DRS and you could settle in a bit more and you could drive around your own pace, but the pace was high.”
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Verstappen admitted that he was caught off-guard by Norris’ lunge into Turn 3, but his momentum in the wake of his rival’s car set him up for a move in kind.
“I still had, of course, the tow [into Turn 4], not the DRS,” he said. “And yeah, I decided to go back into Turn 4. And it was good fighting.”
While Sunday’s Grand Prix will involve a lot more strategy, Verstappen expects another spirited challenge from his McLaren opponents.
“It’s a tight battle,” Verstappen said.
“Ideally, you look in a few details what you can do better. But I need to go back to the team and look back at the race as well as a whole.
“But yeah, always try to look for improvements in the car when you can. And you can change the car around it.”
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