F1 News
Priestley: "Red Bull took a risk, but it turned out great"
- GPblog.com
Red Bull Racing was once again able to astonish last weekend by breaking through the dominance of Mercedes at racing speed. Max Verstappen's strategy was faster than Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton and that made the Dutchman win the race in the end. Former McLaren engineer Marc Priestley expected that even Red Bull didn't expect the advantage in strategy.
"The race actually started on Saturday. It was a very daring choice for Red Bull to qualify on that hard tire. You could see how daring the choice was, because nobody else chose that strategy in the top ten. There was a risk, of course, as they weren't sure Max would go through to Q3", Priestley looks back in his Youtube-livestream.
Hardest band dominant
For Verstappen that risk worked out well. In the end the Dutchman managed to finish in ninth place so he could continue to Q3. On Sunday the hardest tyre turned out to be the best tyre for the race, so Verstappen was able to attack the Mercedes. According to Priestley that was even a surprise for Red Bull. "I don't think Red Bull even knew how good that tyre would be on Sunday, because the choice paid off very well.
Because the first stint of the Red Bull driver was so strong, the team had the upper hand in the rest of the Grand Prix. In the end Verstappen managed to win the race with a ten second lead over the Mercedes drivers, taking him to second place in the championship, just ahead of Bottas. Striking, according to Priestley. "They both won a race and once they got zero points in a race and now look who's ahead, Max Verstappen."