McLaren provided ‘best moment of the race’ quips Marko with Verstappen message
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen
Lando Norris was urged by his McLaren team to go on the hunt for Max Verstappen in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but Verstappen had it all under control.
In the opinion of Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko, it was an “incredible show” put on by Verstappen, as Marko confidently declared that “Norris would have never overtaken us.” For Marko therefore, McLaren’s “go get Max” radio message made him chuckle, and was “the best moment of the race.”
Max Verstappen escapes Lando Norris in Las Vegas
Norris launched from pole in Las Vegas with Verstappen alongside him on the front row. Norris went aggressive and cut off Verstappen’s path going into Turn 1, but overshot the braking zone, allowing Verstappen to swoop through, George Russell too.
“Max forced Norris into a mistake,” Marko told the media of that race start.
As Verstappen looked to settle into a trademark drive to the chequered flag, by Lap 35, Norris was past Russell. Crucial, as McLaren wanted to “go get Max.”
Verstappen was told of that message by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
“I have to laugh about it,” said Verstappen on the message when speaking with Viaplay post-race. “It only motivates me. It only works adversely. It only motivates me to defend even harder if he would have come.”
As it turns out, Marko had a similar reaction.
“This was exactly what Max needed, even though he didn’t really need it,” said Marko of McLaren’s “go get Max” call.
“For me, that was the best moment of the race [laughs].
“After that, it was poof, poof, poof. One fastest lap after another. That’s typical Max.”
Marko added: “Max could always respond. He was the fastest driver and managed his tyres well. Norris would never have overtaken us.
“It was an incredible Verstappen show. Max more or less controlled the race.”
Verstappen, at first slowly, pulled away from Norris following that radio message, but the gap grew significantly as Norris slowed in the latter stages. Analysis from PlanetF1.com’s resident data expert Uros Radovanovic revealed that there was only one realistic explanation: Norris was fuel critical.
Verstappen drove on to a comfortable victory, one which became of far greater significance when both McLaren drivers, Norris and Oscar Piastri, were disqualified post-race due to excessive plank wear on their respective McLaren car.
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It meant that Verstappen moved level on points with Piastri in the championship, and is only 24 behind Norris with two rounds to go.
“Verstappen was beaming,” Marko declared in his post-race assessment. “He’s enjoying this. He’s completely back.”
Marko is known to enjoy a friendly bet within Red Bull, and confirmed that after Verstappen’s heroics, “I won quite a bit, but certainly not as much as Max’s bonus!”
Read next: Max Verstappen: ‘Nothing I lied about’ in assessing Norris title potential
