Max Verstappen had an incredible performance at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. There was a moment when his car spun out of control behind the safety car but he managed to keep it within his grip.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer has a reason to believe that Verstappen has a particular talent in pulling off this feat.
Palmer believes that this ability of Verstappen is being highly ‘instinctive’, which helped save himself from a spin.
The Dutchman had the incident behind the safety car after the race restarted. While some might call it lucky, Palmer seems to believe that Verstappen has a unique skill as well as luck.
“Through a mixture of luck and skill he managed to pull the car round and somehow not even fully leave the track, which could have cost him track position to [Charles] Leclerc or [Lando] Norris behind,” Palmer wrote in his column for Formula1.com.
“He hit and then released the brakes at the perfect moment as he was spinning across the grass and it seemed to correct the slide and pitch him right – back onto the track.
“On the face of it this seems like pure luck in this situation, and it certainly was lucky that he didn’t fully leave the track by the skin of his teeth.
“But I’ve seen Max control a spinning car on the brakes a few times now and quite often he can pull of these miraculous saves. Think back to Brazil 2016, or even Turkey last year where hitting the brakes and releasing at the optimum moment has saved him.”
“This must be a purely instinctive thing for him as it’s not really something a driver can practice for particularly, but once again he managed to wrestle the car back from a position where I’m sure many others would have spun completely.”
Verstappen managed to drive ahead of Lewis Hamilton and went on to win the race.
Hamilton, too, had an accident where we drove on to the gravel and damaged his front wing. But, due to the timing of the safety car, the Brit was able to make his way back up the grid. A conspiracy theory says that this was a result of Wolff’s cunning plan.
“Hamilton had his own bit of luck with the timing of the red flag,” Palmer said.
“It couldn’t have been better for him. Still, he had to make the most of that though, and delivered a fine recovery drive to finish second with fastest lap.
“I’m sure at the chequered flag, Max would have been gutted to see Lewis in second, knowing that he was on the fringes of the top 10 at the red flag. But, in a race where both drivers were superb, and got away with one, the championship remains neck and neck and the excitement continues.”
Do you think Verstappen has a special skill in being able to save his car from a spin? Let us know in the comments below!
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