Max Verstappen says he was unable to compete with McLaren drivers at the Dutch Grand Prix as he races “in another league” with two title contenders.
Oscar Piastri took the lead in a start at Zandvoort, but Verstappen was able to overtake Lando Norris and tried to attack Piastri. From there he quickly loses second place to Norris and says he can’t do another challenge despite running multiple safety car reboots and soft combined tires, and isn’t worth risking his fight with McLaren.
“I wanted a little more (in the race), but soon I realized that the pace wasn’t there,” Verstappen said. “In the race, it looks like you’re struggling with the behavior of the tires and the car laps, and that was very obvious. So I tried to manage my pace, but it basically meant it was more like a fight with the car behind me than what was going on in front of my eyes.
“To be honest, the start was fine. Then I tried to turn around the outside in turn, then it went to turn 2, but there’s always a lot of sand in that corner from the middle of the track to the edge.
“I was still hoping to have a bit of fun. When I moved on (Norris’s) I just followed my pace. That means at one point Landor is going ahead again. You could see, it’s a different league.
Norris continued to retire with mechanical issues that included Piastri extending his championship lead to 34 points, but Verstappen says his title experience has shown that things could change again.
“It’s your lack of control. So you have to keep working hard and trying to keep winning. It’s just as easy as that. Especially when you’re a teammate, you have the same car, the same opportunity. It’s probably a little more complicated than when you’re two different teams, but even so many races can sway.
“I don’t know if there’s a mechanical failure, but it’s out of your control. Yes, that’s not ideal, but there’s enough race and you know the time, whether or not it turns it around.”
