Verstappen on late pit stop: 'Think it was the right call'.

Max Verstappen can finally take back a lot of points in the battle for the championship after his failure in Australia. The Dutchman crossed the finish line first after a dominant Grand Prix of Imola. However, Verstappen did not want to take too many risks during the race.

Speaking to Viaplay, Verstappen indicated that the race had a bit of the same scenario as last year. "When you're in the lead, you don't want to take too much risk. The cars behind you push a bit more and take a bit more risk. I just kind of let it happen at the beginning until there was a slightly wider, dry line. I just picked up my pace after that and watched the tires. That way I controlled the race."

Red Bull made right choices

In the closing stages of the race, Charles Leclerc decided to come in for a new set of soft tires. Red Bull responded with both drivers, which finally proved to be a good choice. However, Leclerc spun in an attempt to get closer to Sergio Perez 's car. Verstappen explains why he chose to stop yet despite his lead.

"From my side it was more out of certainty. I had quite a lead anyway, so then you can make that stop. Checo had to, otherwise he would have been overtaken if he had come in a lap later. Our medium tires didn't look top-notch, so you don't want to drive on them until the end. I think it was the right call though."

Verstappen scores lots of points

Despite his spin, Leclerc still has a large gap to Verstappen. After his two retirements, the Dutchman couldn't think about the championship anymore, but the race in Imola makes him feel positive again.

"You see also last year, you have very positive moments in a championship and then suddenly you run very far. Then you crash and then it's almost back to square one. It can go up and down very quickly, but you have to want to be constant every weekend and not take too many risks. The season is still long, this was a very positive weekend for us. In Miami we have no idea, because it's a new circuit. We needed this for a while though, because we've had a lot of crashes already. This was a good boost for the whole team."