Max Verstappen has reflected on his first Formula 1 win, on his
debut for Red Bull driver at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Prior to
the weekend, Verstappen was promoted from Toro Rosso to the senior
team, with the unlucky Danill Kvyat going the other way in a
demotion. While the Russian would take 10th place in Barcelona,
Verstappen would stun with victory fending off Kimi Raikkonen’s
Ferrari for most of the race to become the youngest-ever Grand Prix
winner at 18 years, 228 days old. In what was just his second
season of F1, Verstappen has reflected on the “insane” build-up to,
and then the actual race itself. “It was pretty insane, joining the
team the week before, going through simulator sessions that I had
to do, getting used to the car the procedures – it’s like a little
booklet,” Verstappen recalled, speaking to the Talking Bull
podcast. “I honestly had no expectations going into the weekend. At
the time I was like: ‘Well, I need to learn so many things’ – it is
the pressure of being in a top team. “You can’t just hide anymore
in like a bad weekend or a bad result. I drove out of the pits and
it was a completely different car for me in FP1. “So it was all
about getting used to the car, getting on top of the tools, the
balance, a lot of things, the engine was different.” Verstappen:
Turn four was a beautiful corner The start of the race was one of
the most controversial moments during the season, when title rivals
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided just four corners into the
race and wiped each other out. Verstappen’s victory was of course
made possible by the iconic collision between Mercedes team-mates
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Turn 4 that took both out and
opened the race up. The Dutchman was put onto a two-stopper along
with Raikkonen while team-mates Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian
Vettel, respectively were on threes – with the former ultimately
turning out the fastest way. “Turn four was a beautiful corner that
day on Lap 1 where the two Mercedes cars just speared off the
road,” he quipped. “Then I knew: ‘Okay, you might be on the podium
here today’ If I’m holding on in the race, because it was my first
proper race in this car, so it was definitely a bit different to
what I was used to in terms of speed. “I had to keep Kimi behind
for quite a few laps and I definitely felt like, with a few laps to
go, I was getting quite nervous. “I was like: ‘I can’t make a
mistake, this is going to be my first one. I can’t lock up. I can’t
do anything wrong here,’ and I kept telling myself that until the
last lap. ” I crossed the line and won the race and I think GP
[Gianpiero Lambiase] was completely shocked. I remember the radio
messages like: ‘Yeah, I can’t believe this. “My dad was there and I
think he was even more nervous than me, because apparently during
the race, he started bleeding out of his nose because he was that
nervous!”
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