Max Verstappen has revealed what was troubling him after David Coulthard spotted a potential injury concern moments after the end of the Austrian Grand Prix. The Scot observed Verstappen “moving a little gingerly” after getting out of his Red Bull in parc ferme after finishing the race second and quizzed the Dutchman about it in his post-race interview.
And Verstappen, having come close to challenging for a win for the first time all year, was happy to play down any concern about his fitness. “I knocked my knees. You know, hit the bones,” he said. “It’s not very nice, but today was okay. So that was the most important thing.”
Indeed, the outlook is very positive for Verstappen and his Red Bull team after their strongest Grand Prix of the year so far. The upgrades which have brought the car down to its target weight seem to have had a positive effect on performance and that allowed Verstappen to be the quickest man on track at times across 71 laps around the Red Bull Ring.
It looked as though he was taking the fight to George Russell during the middle stint of the Grand Prix and, at one point, closed to almost within a second of the race leader. But Red Bull made what turned out to be the mistake of extending his time on those tyres for a little too long and, by the time he swapped for fresh rubber, he had slipped to more than 10 seconds adrift.
That took the pressure off Russell and allowed him to race without pushing quite so hard, giving him the chance to cool his tyre, brakes and engine temperatures. That meant his Mercedes was in a good state when Verstappen took the fight back to him in the latter stages and Verstappen never got close enough to make a play for the win.
Indeed, he spent the last couple of laps defending rather than attacking, as Kimi Antonelli made a late play for a Mercedes one-two but fell short by just three-tenths of a second. Still, Verstappen was clearly pleased with the progress he has seen on his car.
He said: “I think it was a very good race for us. The first two laps were quite fun. And then it was basically just trying to manage all your tyres. And honestly, I think the car was in quite a good window for, I would say, half of the race. And then we just picked up a few, let’s say, issues with the car, which then prevented me from basically finding that nice rhythm. But still, to be second, that close to a win, I think is extremely positive for us. So in that sense, for sure, I’m very happy.”
Winner Russell said: “It’s incredible to be back on the top step. It’s been a little while, so I’m definitely going to enjoy this one this evening. It’s been a lot of hard work with my team to get us back on track. Obviously, there was a tricky run of form at one point. Max and Red Bull were incredibly quick this weekend, so kudos to them. I was having to push every single lap.”