Red Bull F1 chief ‘couldn’t believe’ Max Verstappen’s opening lap move in Mexico

The Red Bull driver now leads the championship by 19 points

Max Verstappen took a dominant win in Mexico (Getty Images)

Red Bull’s head of driver development Helmut Marko has heaped praise on Max Verstappen for the move which saw him take the lead of the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix at the first corner last weekend.

Starting third, the 24-year-old moved behind pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas to take advantage of the slipstream from the rear of the Finn’s Mercedes, before moving to the racing line on the left-hand side of turn one and braking later than both Bottas and team-mate Lewis Hamilton to sweep around the outside of both cars into first position.

From there the race was a cake walk for Verstappen, who took a comfortable ninth victory of the season and increased his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship to 19 points with four races and a total of 107 points remaining.

Both Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and Hamilton were highly critical of Bottas in the aftermath of the race, bemused by the wide open space he neglected on the left of the circuit which Verstappen was then able to exploit. But 78-year-old Marko believes praising the Dutch race winner is more valid than blaming Bottas.

“That was an almost perfect day,” former F1 driver Marko told German motorsport outlet Speed Week. “I can’t believe where Max braked in the first corner! That was a braking manoeuvre beyond the realms of possibility.”

The Austrian has worked for Red Bull on the driver development side since 1999, meaning he has overseen the transition into Formula 1 of drivers including Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Marko now believes that Red Bull have found the raw pace to hold off Mercedes no matter the circuit. “Our form curve is on the rise, now we have to achieve a one-two soon and secure the gap to Mercedes,” he said. “Nobody in recent years had won from pole position here in Mexico, so that had made us optimistic. Our car is fast everywhere.”

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez became the first Mexican to finish on the podium at his home race, having been held off by the strong defensive driving of Hamilton for the final 12 laps.

“Pérez unfortunately attacked Hamilton a bit too late. One or two laps more and he would have got Hamilton,” Marko added. “Lewis’ tyres were pretty worn. I’m not one to chew nails, but Pérez’s catch-up was stressful.”

“After qualifying it hadn’t looked so good for us, but we knew we had the speed we needed to be able to win the race,” Marko asserted. “We had everything under control after Verstappen’s great manoeuvre in the first corner and Max was able to pull away from the field.”