Lammers: 'Because of this Max got away badly at the restart'

Jan Lammers saw opportunities for Max Verstappen's victory yesterday, but he also knows the reason why he did not succeed. After a crazy race, the Limburger finished second, behind Lewis Hamilton.

In advance, the chances for Verstappen to have a chance of victory seemed small, but present. Nevertheless, he saw those chances diminish at the restart of the race. Lammers, yesterday's guest at Studio Sport, thinks he knows what that was all about. "Max had to look back, instead of attacking Hamilton. That's because of the DAS system Mercedes has, which allows the tyres to be tilted on a straight road outwards, giving you more temperature in the front tyres."

"Max had his hands full"

As a result, Hamilton had warmer tyres than Verstappen when it restarted after the safety car. "The other reason is that the top three had put everyone on one lap in the meantime. All drivers were let pass under the safety car to get back on the same lap. As a result, everyone behind the top three had warmer tyres. So Max had his hands full both in front and behind him to hold his position."

After the safety car it drove almost the entire field on new soft tyres, which enabled Hamilton to set the fastest lap several times in a row. Yet in the very last lap Verstappen managed to take away the extra World Cup point from the Brit. Lammers thought that was very special. "You can tell by his reaction. He celebrated it almost as much as a victory."