Verstappen made one mistake: 'Then Hamilton would have passed'

Everyone has an opinion about the brake incident between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. According to Christijan Albers Hamilton was really surprised by the action of Verstappen and was not at all concerned about the DRS zone. According to the Dutchman, Verstappen made one mistake.

"Max was just extremely clever. He just wanted to give back the position before the DRS-zone. Lewis wasn't thinking about that at all. I think he was so confused when he arrived and Max braked and went to the middle of the track", Albers says during the F1 podcast of De Telegraaf.

Why did Verstappen go to the middle of the track? "He wants Lewis to take the corner on the inside so he doesn't have a good exit. Otherwise, you just keep driving straight. Lewis heard absolutely nothing. It's very simple: Max is just super smart. Lewis can never take the ideal line and Max knows where the DRS zone is."

Verstappen did one thing wrong

According to Albers, Hamilton was really surprised by Verstappen's braking and it had nothing to do with the DRS, as is also insinuated. "The problem is that the stewards have to listen to two stories. Red Bull is giving it a spin by saying it was because of the DRS."

"To be honest, I don't feel that Lewis was thinking about the DRS. I saw in Lewis' car that he was really confused and that maybe he thought there was a yellow flag. He starts to have doubts. At some point Max brakes hard, you can just hear that on the engine, and Lewis is surprised and he can't swerve."

"Max doesn't actually do anything wrong in terms of strategy and wisdom to take that position. The only thing he did wrong was to brake one more time. He squeezed another 69 bar on it. If he had let it run, Lewis would have passed", says Albers.