General
Rosberg critical: "Verstappen simply made more mistakes"
- GPblog.com
Where many analysts were satisfied with Max Verstappen in Portugal, Nico Rosberg has a different opinion. The former Mercedes driver argues that the 23-year old driver from Limburg should have won his twelfth GP victory of his career. In the opinion of Rosberg, Verstappen has made too many mistakes.
"The driver made the difference today," Rosberg said in his analysis for Sky Sports. The 2016 world champion believes Verstappen should have won today at the Portimao circuit. "Max had the faster car, which we also saw yesterday in qualifying. Max just made more mistakes. You can't afford that if you want to be world champion against Lewis."
The German saw Verstappen's fastest time in Q3 scrapped on Saturday for exceeding track limits and today he could whistle for his extra World Cup point as he once again ended up with four wheels off the track. "Everything has to be right, otherwise you don't stand a chance. They are small mistakes, but they add up. Max still has to find something and avoid these mistakes," he is remarkably adamant.
Marko and Wolff no friends
It is clear that a battle is about to take place between Mercedes vs. Red Bull and Verstappen vs. Hamilton. The differences between them are small, so it could take until December this season to find out who the 2021 world champion is. "There is so much pressure and we know Red Bull and Mercedes are not the best of friends. It starts with the team bosses. Toto and Helmut don't like each other at all. And it's the same with the drivers. We're going to have a lot of fun with that," Rosberg concluded.
The fact that Marko and Wolff don't really like each other was demonstrated once again this weekend. The Red Bull advisor accused Wolff of unsportsmanlike behaviour and that went down the wrong way with Mercedes.