Verstappen challenged Red Bull: 'Nice to make them a bit nervous'

Max Verstappen did not let his grid penalty cause trouble and drove to victory in dominant fashion at Spa-Francorchamps, but the talk of the day is about his exchanges with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. Verstappen says it was not all as serious as it may have come across.

"Probably 50-50," Verstappen replied when asked how many of the calls were serious and how many were meant to be joking. His suggestion to push extra in order to make another pit stop in the closing stages of the race belonged to the latter category, according to the championship leader.

"I know that the team doesn't like to do another stop, but I like to mention it, so they might get a bit nervous. And then I like the response that, no, no, we're not doing that today. It's fine. I mean, we know each other very well and we have a very good relationship," he said about his bond with Lambiase.

"I think the relationship with your race engineer is very important," he adds. "I find it's always a really important part of your performance, not only your race engineer but everyone like very close around your performance engineer. These kinds of things. So yeah, and of course over the years, you build up much more of a relationship, you know each other much better."