Ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard recently revealed a scary prank which reigning World Champion Max Verstappen played on him, at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen stormed to victory at the Red Bull Ring to secure the winning trophy at the team’s home race once again, with Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez having completed the rostrum.
The Dutchman’s win at the Austrian GP earlier in the season marked his 42nd career victory at the pinnacle of motorsport, which saw him move one win ahead of the legendary Ayrton Senna.
Verstappen has since gone on to reach 45 career wins, with him having entered the summer break on the back of eight consecutive victories.
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His win in Austria is one which the Scotsman will never forget, as Verstappen almost ran him over.
Coulthard is, of course, an ex-Red Bull driver, who appears to be close with the two-time World Champion.
The ex-driver turned pundit was on post-race interview duties at the Austrian GP, so he made his way down to the pitlane as the race approached its climax.
Coulthard decided to watch the final few laps close to Red Bull’s pit box, which nobody expected to be used again.
However, due to wanting the fastest lap, Verstappen pitted for new tyres.
Coulthard saw this as a chance to record Verstappen’s pit-stop for his son, given how close he was to the action.
He quickly became too close, as Verstappen was just “half a metre away” from running over Coulthard’s feet.
“I was standing just before the Red Bull garage in the pit lane with my back to the FIA garage door,” Coulthard started explaining to ex-F1 team owner Eddie Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast.
“And I see Max is coming down the pit lane so I take my phone out. I thought I’d take a wee video of a pitstop for my son, you know, it’d be a nice little thing. […] he went past about half a metre away from my feet!”
Coulthard added: “I couldn’t go any farther back and he pulls into the pit box. I filmed it and I think ‘God that was you know, it was a bit on the edge.’.”
Somewhat comically, Verstappen told Coulthard after the race that he did it on purpose, as they were about to travel back to Monaco together.
Verstappen was keen to give Coulthard a “little scare”, something he did without error.
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“He comes in [the plane] and goes, ‘Did you like how close I got to you in the pit lane?'” Coulthard recalled.
“I asked him if he knew it was me. He went, ‘Yeah, I didn’t need to go that close. I just wanted to give you a little scare'”
Jordan replied: “That’s just how good that guy is!”