Despite having claimed his 37th career victory last Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen still found the time to complain about the Safety Car, which featured several times.
Sunday’s race at the Albert Park Circuit was action-packed and incident-filled, with the Grand Prix having seen three red flags, resulting in several Safety Car appearances.
Verstappen actually made a bad start to the race and slipped from first to third; however, he easily worked his way back into the lead before cruising to his first ever victory in Australia.
The Dutchman certainly had exceptional pace all race and was able to lap consistently quicker than the rest of the field, although, he did appear to struggle to generate heat into his tyres at the beginning of each restart.
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The race was restarted twice on Sunday, with Verstappen having been frustrated on both occasions at how “slowly” the Safety Car was going prior to the standing start.
Verstappen was seen discussing the slow Safety Car with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the cooldown room after the race, where all three drivers agreed that the circuit felt “like ice” when behind the Safety Car.
“The first lap was not easy, huh?” Alonso said to Verstappen in the cooldown room.
“Especially the first restart, or second restart,” replied the Red Bull driver. “Because the Safety Car is driving so slowly you can’t put any heat on them. It’s like ice.”
“It’s just ridiculous,” added Hamilton.
His second victory of the 2023 F1 season has resulted in the Dutchman possessing a 15-point lead ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which takes place at the end of April.
Staggeringly, Verstappen has dropped just nine points so far this season, with the 25-year-old having claimed 69 out of a possible 78.
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Verstappen dropped six points in Saudi Arabia after finishing second whilst he dropped a point in Bahrain and Australia, due to having not set the fastest lap.
The Baku City Circuit will likely be another venue where the double World Champion is seen as the favourite for victory, given that he claimed a comfortable win in Azerbaijan last season.
Baku hasn’t always been the kindest of places to him, though, with Verstappen having suffered a high-speed tyre failure whilst leading in 2021, whilst he was hit by former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.