Max Verstappen cheekily called out the lack of British journalists in his post-race press conference after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Dutchman had gone 10 races without a win before a superlative drive in the wet at Interlagos.
The three-time world champion’s charge from P17 means he now has a lead of over 60 points on title rival Lando Norris, who finished sixth. It means Verstappen effectively has one hand on a fourth successive title.
Amid the ecstasy of his first win since the Spanish Grand Prix in late June, the Red Bull driver called out the absence of British reporters while discussing his victory to the press.
“I appreciate you guys being here, but I don’t see any British media?” he quizzed. “Did they have to go to the airport already? Or do they not know where the press conference is…?”
Only five out of the 1,121 previous F1 races have been won from 17th or lower. And the 27-year-old won by a huge 19 seconds at Sao Paulo as he broke Michael Schumacher’s record for the most consecutive days in the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.
Verstappen has now been top for 897 days and McLaren’s Norris has a near impossible task ahead of him if he wants to win his maiden title.
Reigning world champion Verstappen added: “My emotions today have been a rollercoaster. You know, with qualifying, being really unlucky with that red flag and starting P17, I knew that it was going to be a very tough race.
“But we stayed out of trouble, we made the right calls, we stayed calm and we were fine. All of these things together of course made that result possible. I mean, unbelievable to win here from so far back.
“Of course I was very frustrated with qualifying. But we tried to just use it as a good motivation in the race. Luckily we had a great start and from there onwards, we were just having a really good feeling in the car.
“So incredibly happy with today. Honestly, it’s crazy. I never expected to go from P17 to P1. I was hoping for good points, but this is absolutely crazy.
Now it’s of course a great result, which if you look a few hours ago, was definitely the other way around, looking like we were going to lose a lot of points!
“So I’m very happy, but still three tough races [to go], so we just need to stay calm and make no mistakes.”
Ahead of the final three rounds in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Verstappen is 62 points clear of Norris. The Briton said to Sky Sports F1:
“I did all I could today, that’s all. Max won the race. Good on him, well done, but it doesn’t change anything for me.
“Max was easily quicker than us and I think if he went from the front he probably would have lapped us. The pace was good, I think similar to George [Russell], but the Red Bull was very fast today.
“It’s been an up-and-down weekend, for sure. Not a lot more I could do. I’m sure George probably feels like he won the race today, he deserved it more than anyone else.
“I probably finished third realistically, so it’s tough. Max probably would have come through anyway and probably beaten us. But [it was] just unlucky for us. Nothing more than that.
“I made a couple of mistakes, which I own up to, and cost me a couple of positions in the end but that’s it.”
