Eighteen-year-old Verstappen showed maturity beyond his tender years on his Red Bull debut to fend off the challenge from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who at 36 is twice as old as the Dutchman.
Advertisement
A first-lap collision between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, allied to the ideal execution of a two-stop strategy, allowed Verstappen to take the flag in Spain, and his place in the record books, aged 18 years and 227 days.
Eager to quickly regain the lead, Hamilton went for a narrow gap on the exit of Turn Three.
How it unfolded: Hamilton moved onto the grass to avoid an initial collision with Rosberg, but lost control. The crash prompted the safety auto to be deployed and forced both drivers to retire.
Hamilton, who remains 43 points adrift of Rosberg with 16 grands prix still remaining, added: “Today we’ve lost 43 points, and there’s only two of us that were part of doing that”. It is very, very tough as it was my race to win. “By continuing the approach of letting them race it was clear that eventually this could happen and we will continue to let them race”.
Mercedes’ non-executive chairman Niki Lauda appeared to lay the blame for the incident at Hamilton’s feet.
“It is stupid, we could’ve won this race”, the Austrian told the BBC.
Mercedes boss Totto Wolff was also displeased with the incident, the German seen chasing down both drivers as the headed into the team garage after returning from the track. We’ll wait and see what sanctions or penalties occur here, but one thing’s for sure: things are about to get heated between Rosberg and Hamilton once more. ‘Lewis is too aggressive.
However Wolff was slightly more cautious in his assessment than that of Lauda. I’m standing here now with zero points and I was in the gravel trap.
“The convergence of events led neither driver to be wholly or predominantly at fault”, officials said in a statement.
‘From a team’s perspective we’ve looked at the pictures and the data and it’s not clear cut. The duo collided when Hamilton tried to slide up the inside at turn four. And equally you can’t blame Nico for closing the door.
Advertisement
Red Bull principal Christian Horner, who said he saw “uncanny” similarities between Verstappen and a young Vettel, said the Dutch teenager would only grow in confidence after climbing the podium for the first time, but also offered words of support to Ricciardo.
