Verstappen reveals lap 1 near miss!

Max Verstappen showed the F1 world why he is such a talent on his 21st birthday by producing an incredible race to go from 19th on the grid to 5th at the chequered flag in Russia. He won Driver of the Day for his efforts.

It took just eight laps for the Dutchman to ascend 14 positions in the race and even moved into the lead after the front runners pitted for their only stop of the race.

He eventually pitted on lap 43, rejoining the track in fifth position once again, but did not catch up and overtake Kimi Raikkonen for fourth place.

We will never know if Verstappen would’ve had the pace to catch the Finn, as Red Bull opted to save his engine and accept a fifth and sixth placed finish, with Verstappen’s departing team mate Daniel Ricciardo in sixth.

The birthday boy analysed his start with Sky Sports and revealed how his race was almost over before it begun.

“It was a good launch, and then even while turning I had good traction. And I tried to follow a bit in the tow. There’s a lot of dust actually going on. You don’t really see it as much as in the car.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen on the inside [at Turn 2]. I stayed on the track, which is very important of course. [At Turn 3] you try to be in the middle because the wake of the car can sometimes be a bit tricky.”

Verstappen had already made his way past a few drivers by now and was now looking at beating Sergey Sirotkin.

“Soon I have a very close moment, I’ll show you! Everything just went clean. Here I was thinking about getting by [Sirotkin], still not sure, and then you’ll see what happens here.

“So I’m going next, and then like… ooooh,” he adds as we see the Russian squeezing him into the wall on the outside as Verstappen backs out of the move.