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Palmer wonders, Did that mistake cost Verstappen the win?

Palmer wonders, "Did that mistake cost Verstappen the win?"

03-05-2021 11:51 Last update: 16:21
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GPblog.com

Although many Verstappen fans will be disappointed that Max didn't take pole or victory in Portugal, the race was again a feast for the neutral Formula 1 fan. Once again the Dutchman and Lewis Hamilton showed they are in a class of their own. This was again expressed in a few spectacular actions between the two on the track.

Fault crucial?

In the BCC's F1: Chequered Flag podcast, Jolyon Palmer also reveals he enjoyed the experience: "We've had a wheel-to-wheel fight between Lewis and Max in every race so far. Back in the days when Hamilton and Vettel were fighting for wins you rarely saw these fights."

He continued, "The cars are so proportionate to each other in terms of performance, little details make so much of a difference this year. But the battles between the two are amazing." For example, he alludes to a mistake by Max that prevented him from overtaking Bottas at the start of the race: "Was that mistake crucial and did it cost him the win?"

Abu Dhabi 2016

Hard to say according to the British former driver. Palmer was pleased with Bottas' lead at the start of the race though: "You couldn't write a better script for it. You have a slower car [Bottas] in the lead, but not so slow that you can overtake him very easily, but he constantly pushed the two title rivals back into each other's laps. It was like Abu Dhabi 2016."