Crimson Bull driver Verstappen narrowly edged McLaren’s Lando Norris after he gapped the Briton within the first stint on mediums, however struggled far more on the arduous Pirelli rubber for almost all of Imola’s 63-lap race.
Verstappen defined that he could not preserve the arduous compound in the best working window, which led to a scarcity of grip that he says almost noticed him crash at Flip 7’s Tosa hairpin.
“On the mediums, it was superb,” Verstappen mentioned after clinching his fifth grand prix win of the season.
“However then as quickly as I swapped to the arduous tyres, possibly not the primary 5 to 10 laps however after that, I used to be like: ‘I am unsure I can deliver this to the tip’.
“The tyres simply fell out of the working window and it was identical to driving on ice, actually snappy.
“At Flip 7, I virtually ended up within the grandstands, for my feeling, sooner or later. It was simply very tough, actually bizarre strains that I needed to take.”
In earlier occasions, Verstappen would have merely had the benefit to cruise to the end anyway, however within the vastly upgraded McLaren MCL38, Norris managed to reel the triple world champion again in, hounding him to the road during the last 10 laps.
Verstappen admitted he had doubts about protecting Norris behind however targeted on getting a very good exit onto Imola’s primary straight, which was the one attainable overtaking alternative for the Briton.
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing RB20
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Norris by no means made it into DRS vary of the Crimson Bull however closed to seven-tenths on the end.
“I used to be actually making an attempt to outlive on the time, after which immediately Lando actually picked up tempo,” Verstappen defined.
“I might see him catch up and I used to be unsure if I might preserve him behind. As quickly because it was half a second lap, that is rather a lot.
“However alternatively, you’ll be able to’t do something about it. You can not immediately attempt to pressure a half a second out of it when you do not have to stability.
“I used to be simply making an attempt to essentially not make errors, drive across the stability points and be fast on the straight. With the rear wing we had, we had been fairly quick on the straight.”
An extra headache was a black-and-white flag for observe limits, which meant Verstappen was beneath fixed menace of being slapped with a five-second penalty.
“I used to be understeering rather a lot on the medium and that was pushing me off typically if I missed the apex,” he defined his three observe limits offences.
“After that I used to be leaving a bit extra margin. The previous few laps when Lando was catching had been a bit tougher, as a result of I had to make use of the observe as a lot as I might.
“It does require a bit extra focus, so each exit you must be actually certain what you are doing.”