Max Verstappen ‘tried to destroy’ Red Bull garage before Brazilian GP win

Max Verstappen described the range of emotions he felt on Sunday, from “almost trying to destroy the garage” after qualifying to taking P1 in Brazil.

An ill-timed stoppage in Q2 meant the Red Bull driver was unable to progress to Q3, sitting in 12th place at the time the session was halted and on a flying lap to try and improve his time on an improving track – with a five-place grid penalty compounding that frustration for Verstappen to start 17th later in the day.

Max Verstappen explains range of emotions after Brazilian GP triumph

Verstappen worked his way up through the field and, having not pitted when the red flag was shown midway through the race, he was able to change tyres and maintain second place on the road for the race restart.

Diving past Esteban Ocon for the lead at the second Safety Car restart, the World Championship leader would go on to set a succession of fastest laps and eventually win by 19 seconds come the chequered flag, extending his lead in the standings to 62 points with 86 left available.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted after the race he couldn’t remember the last time Verstappen had been so “animated” on the podium, such were his celebrations in victory, and the three-time World Champion explained that he went from venting his anger to standing on the top step within a matter of hours on Sunday.

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“Yeah, I don’t even know where to start, because my emotions today have been from almost trying to destroy the garage to winning the race,” Verstappen admitted after the race.

“I mean, starting P17… I knew that we could have a good race, but in qualifying, I think it was quite clear that there was only one line that you could take, so I knew that overtaking was going to be quite tough.

“But in the race, we had a good start. That helped already. We had a good first lap, from there, we just picked off a few drivers here and there.

“Then I got a little bit stuck behind the train of Yuki [Tsunoda], I think. Then we just stayed calm.

“It was still a very long race, naturally. We made the right calls. When some pitted, the rain was coming, we stayed out, which was very sketchy, and then I saw Esteban in front of me flying, like four seconds a lap faster and I was like, ‘I’m just happy to keep the car on the track’.

“I mean, at one point it was just red, like we needed a red flag. It was just undriveable, even on extreme tyres, it would have not been possible because of the banking of the track here, you know, it’s filling up very quickly and it almost felt like I was driving a boat.”

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