Ross Brawn: Verstappen needs to learn from his mistakes

It was an up and down weekend for the Dutchman in Mexico as he stormed through qualifying to set two laps good enough for pole position but was later demoted to fourth after ignoring yellow flags on his final run after Valtteri Bottas’ crash.
 
During the race Verstappen tussled with Lewis Hamilton at the start before suffering a puncture from contact with Bottas, dropping him to the back and being forced to work his way through the midfield, recovering to sixth.
 
“Max made a few mistakes that cost him dearly,” Brawn said in his F1 column.
 
“Starting on Saturday when he ignored yellow flags following Valtteri Bottas’ Q3 crash, and afterwards blatantly admitting that he had not reduced his speed.
 
“Then, on Sunday, the red mist came down on the first lap as he tangled with Hamilton in Turn 2 after the start.

“To make matters worse he picked up a puncture following a somewhat ambitious move past Bottas in the stadium section a few laps later. And that was pretty much that."

Brawn believes that despite his comeback to sixth from 20th it will be overshadowed due to his mistakes throughout the weekend, something he needs to overcome.

“There will be little consolation in his spirited fight back to sixth from P20 that involved a marathon 66-lap stint on hard tyres. The Dutchman showed his age or lack of it. He’s still only 22 and so there is plenty of room for improvement," he added.

“The important thing is to learn from one’s mistakes, which applies even if you’re 50 but perhaps a little more so at 22.

“You have to win the ones you should win and the ones you shouldn’t as demonstrated by Lewis - that is how you become a world champion.”