A striking moment during the Japanese GP: Max Verstappen waving to Pierre Gasly at the moment the Frenchman passed his former teammate. The Dutchman once again experienced little driving pleasure in the RB22 at Suzuka, and therefore tried to make the best of it during his battle with the Alpine driver: ‘I’m just trying to laugh about it a bit’.
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NOW ONLINE: 40 pages Race Special Japanese GP: our online magazine with current events, reactions, analysis and interview!
Max Verstappen was in a battle with former teammate Pierre Gasly for seventh place for many laps during the Japanese GP. The Dutchman ultimately came out on the losing end, but not before a striking moment during the Frenchman’s overtaking maneuver. The Alpine driver passed Verstappen at high speed at the start-finish line, and at that moment, the four-time world champion waved to Gasly.
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‘Goodbye!’
Verstappen explained after the race why he was helpless against the Alpine driver at that moment. “You just can’t overtake. Well, you can overtake, but then you have no battery left on the next straight,” he said. “So I tried it once, just to see how it went, and I overtook him at the last chicane, but yeah, then you have no battery left on the next straight. So I thought: ‘goodbye’.”
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Gasly admitted to F1TV after the race that he was quite tired after the fight with Verstappen. The won battle with the world champion earned the Frenchman his third points finish in three Grands Prix. Meanwhile, the Dutchman himself was counting down the laps. “Fifteen to go, ten to go, five to go,” the driver looks back. “I’m just trying to laugh about it a bit. There’s no point in being frustrated all the time either.”
NOW ONLINE: 40 pages Race Special Japanese GP: our online magazine with current events, reactions, analysis and interview!
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