According to Red Bull Racing F1 team principal Christian Horner, Max Verstappen ‘knew’ he could be penalized for setting the fastest lap at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix. He says. Verstappen needed the fastest lap bonus points to win the Grand Slam by leading every lap from pole position – finishing with a 1:16.330 on lap 61 of 66. obtained in
Verstappen’s dominance was also huge in Spain, where Q1 was the only session he did not lead this weekend, but the race came close to being penalized for the black and white flag on the track boundaries. Verstappen was warned by his race engineers about this, but nevertheless continued to push for extra points. Christian Horner says Verstappe is aware of the risks. “He went over the track limit in two laps in Turn 5 and then in Turn 10 he went over the track limit again, so it was a bit of a surprise,” Horner told the media. “He didn’t realize there was a limitation there, so he engineered it[Gianpiero Lambiase]let him know that ‘one more shot is a penalty’ and not to risk him for the fastest lap. “Their relationship is like an old couple arguing over which TV channel to watch. We were able to set up a test lap.” With the majority of the field starting the race on soft tyres, Red Bull opted to start both cars on the medium, with Verstappen and fourth place finisher Sergio Perez both on the line Developing a medium-hard strategy -soft. “(Starting in the medium) might be a little conservative,” Horner said. “I was a bit conservative with Max because I was worried that the soft tires would deteriorate quickly and put us at risk of three stops,” he said. “Today was an incredible performance from Max. The hardest part of the race for him was actually the start, and he was the only two cars to start in the medium.” “He had a good start but in the first turn he had to be firm but fair to Carlos. After that he controlled the race brilliantly and ran all three compounds today. And he was fast enough to hide what was happened behind him, and by the end of the race he had a 24 second lead, so it was a great performance.”
