JAKARTA - Max Verstappen has finished on the podium for the sixth time this season. However, he was bored of undergoing the Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, Sunday, August 30 because he could not provide significant resistance to the rival team, Mercedes.
Verstappen missed the starting line after 0.015 seconds adrift in qualifying and had to start from P3.
After losing his position, and claiming back from Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the race, Verstappen raced in the Red Bull RB16 to maintain distance but did not have the performance to suppress or attack the Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas duo.
"It's quite boring, there's not much that can be done," said Verstappen, as quoted by Antara, Monday.
"I couldn't catch them when they pressed. Then I ran out of tires in the end until in the last eight laps I was backing off, keeping the front tires so today wasn't very fun out there.
"With the medium tires I have a lot of grip. With hard, at first I tried to put a little pressure on Valtteri but they told her to be firmer and I couldn't keep up so it felt a little alone.
I had a bit of a lonely race, but I'm pleased with P3, the best we could achieve today 👏 #KeepPushing 🇧🇪 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/KkIhrAObQx
- Max Verstappen (@ Max33Verstappen) August 30, 2020
The pace of the Renault Ricciardo car ahead of the finish was fast enough to be within attack distance if Verstappen made a pitstop. The Red Bull team finally decided not to include Verstappen and as a result had to keep their tires to the finish.
The racer from Holland even felt a vibration in his car until he finished because the tires were no longer comfortable to use.
Verstappen finished 15 seconds after Hamilton won the 2020 season's seventh series race, and is seven seconds behind Bottas who finished runner-up.
Ricciardo finished 4th, 3.422 seconds behind Verstappen, and took one extra point for scoring the fastest lap time.
With this result, Verstappen is still in second place and is now 47 points away from Hamilton, who is getting stronger at the top of the standings. Valtteri Bottas cut his distance from the Dutch racer to three points.
VERSTAPPEN: "I couldn't really keep up with [the Mercedes] ... We finished P3, any more was not possible" #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 # F1 pic.twitter.com/3KotkcDO8p
- Formula 1 (@ F1) August 30, 2020
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