Max Verstappen applauds Red Bull for minimizing the damage of his race-altering mistake

Max Verstappen has applauded his team, Red Bull, for helping him minimize the damage after his early race error compromised the driver's final result. The Dutch driver put together a blistering lap in qualifying that helped him secure pole position.

The situation was, however, quite different on Sunday, as the team's gamble of going with a low downforce setup severely compromised Max Verstappen. In the wet weather conditions, the Dutch driver was unable to find the right balance in his car and was struggling with his Red Bull.

He would soon lose the lead to Oscar Piastri, who sailed past him, but during the second safety car restart, the driver would spin his Red Bull and drop down the order. From that point onwards, it was all about keeping the car on the road and playing the long game.

Max Verstappen would slowly make his way back through the field, and that saw him ultimately finish the race in P5. From a potential podium finish, this was a letdown, but considering where the driver was after his spin, this was a decent recovery. Talking to the media, including Sportskeeda, the Dutch driver applauded the team for keeping calm and making the right calls after the error. He said,

"We made the right calls, stayed calm, stayed out as long as we could with the inters. And that was, again, the right call, so we ended up fifth, which I think, in hindsight, looking at it, is probably the best we could have done after all the things that happened during the race."

Max Verstappen looks back at the race

Talking about the race, Max Verstappen admitted afterwards that he didn't know what to expect. The driver's low downforce setup was always going to put him in a compromising position, and according to him, he just couldn't find the right balance with the car. He said,

"To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, but it was just very difficult from lap 1 onwards. Very difficult balance in the car between high speed and low speed. I couldn't really find a good balance. Also on the inters [intermediate tyre], I think we're degrading the tyres too much, especially compared to McLaren, they were again on a different level."

He added,

"And then I had, of course, my moment, which made everything a bit more difficult. But even when I was behind, like P10 or whatever I was in, I also didn't really have the pace to move forward, which was a bit concerning."

Amongst all of this, something else that caught the eye of many was the talk around Verstappen's future. The Dutch driver is reportedly looking at options for the future and could possibly make a move to Mercedes.