Max Verstappen is bittersweet about his Belgian GP victory.
The Belgian GP was the most bizarre one in a while, and a horrible low to the crazy high of the qualifying. No racing laps were run at Spa, and the race was called off due to persistent rain after two red flags.
Rain played the devil during the race, and it couldn’t get going. Norris’ crash during qualifying was probably fresh on the minds of those involved. Drivers drove three laps behind the Safety Car over the four hours of the race. As a result, the results were awarded based on qualification after calculating the penalties, and pole sitter Verstappen was awarded the victory.
Verstappen did not celebrate his win as much, saying it felt somewhat strange. He was bittersweet about his victory, saying it’s not how he wanted to win.
“In hindsight, it was very important to get that pole position,” Verstappen said, as reported by RaceFans.
“Of course it’s a big shame to not do proper laps. But the conditions were very tricky out there. I said at 3:30 ‘let’s go’. I think the conditions were decent, but the visibility was very low. I think if we would have started at three o’clock we would had a better chance. Nevertheless, after that, it just stayed really wet and it kept raining. Of course it’s a win, but it’s not how you want to win.
The real winners
Verstappen also hailed the fans who came to watch the race live, saying, “I think for today big credit goes to all the fans around the track to stay here the whole day in rain, in the cold, windy conditions. So I think they are actually the bigger winners today.
“We have to keep on pushing, keep on trying, of course, to close it and go ahead. We have a few more races to do that, and I’m confident that we have a good car. We just need to keep on trying to get a bit more performance out of it.”