Reflecting on his efforts, Verstappen said: “I think what made the race was the beginning, I took the lead [at the start of Lap 3], and that’s where I had my buffer then in that first stint where I could eke out that gap a little bit.
“I think after that, we had to drive quite a defensive race, you know? Lando and McLaren, they were very, very quick today, especially on deg, it seems always the last few laps of the stint, they were very, very fast.
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“But then I think we did everything well, we drove quite, I think, an aggressive strategy, but luckily it paid out until the end – it was quite close until the end but very happy to win here.”
Pushed on just how close it got in those opening exchanges, he added: “I had to do a bit of rallying on the straight, I had to go onto the grass a bit, which lost me a bit of momentum, so then of course we braked quite late into Turn 1.