Hamilton's former teammate saw a 'brilliant' Verstappen: 'Pure demonstration of power'
A filmmaker with a soft spot for Ronnie Peterson, Gilles Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen and above all, Tazio Nuvolari and Ayrton Senna, is also a diehard Formula One fan since the age of 4 (mid-90's). An avid researcher of the past of Grand Prix Racing since before it was even named F1, and with a thirst for knowledge of the ins and outs of the actuality of the sport, as well as for the technical aspects that define it, is a member of GPblog since 2023, where he has put his love of racing to good use.
Heikki Kovalainen, former McLaren F1 driver, called Max Verstappen's pole lap for the Japanese Grand Prix a historic achievement, with his subsequent win on Sunday reminding the F1 world why the Dutchman is "one of the all-time greats."
"I think we've seen pure brilliance by Max Verstappen this weekend. I think it's still the case that the Red Bull car is not not as fast as the McLaren car but Max has driven an absolute stunning qualifying lap, got everything and probably a bit extra out of the car," said the Finnish former driver turned pundit on the F1 Nation podcast.
The hardest part of the job for the Dutchman, though, was still to come a day later, due to the pace and the pressure he was under throughout the entire race. "The race today was a qualifying sprint, qualifying [pace] 53 lap race and [the] top three were separated by a second or two all the way throughout the race and Max had the pace and didn't put a foot wrong."
'Verstappen reminds F1 world why he's an all-time great'
"It was [an] unbelievable display of his skills and it's just a good reminder to all of us, if we've seen the last few races that he's had sort of average races, because his standards [are] obviously very high, he reminded us this weekend why he's the four-time world champion and one of the all-time greats," Kovalainen then added: "It's been a pleasure to watch, it's a pure display of sheer might, I'd say."
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Regarding Verstappen's qualifying lap, Lewis Hamilton's former teammate at McLaren complimented the regining world champion on his 'right on the limit' drive.
"That was right up there with one at all time qualifying laps. He was right on the limit. I mean I watched it a few times on replay and it's just mind blowing."
"It looks in a few places that he's not going to make the corner, especially turn, I think it's turn 13, the entry to the spoon corner, it looks like he can't make the corner when he's entering the corner, but he just makes it and still has a clean exit," Kovalainen concluded.
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