But when it was a dream afternoon for Purple Bull, then it was undoubtedly a nightmare for Ferrari, as each of its drivers — Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz — had been pressured to retire with engine failure lengthy earlier than the top.
In complete, 4 vehicles powered by the Ferrari engine, together with Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, retired from the grand prix.
The Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton took full benefit of Ferrari’s woes by ending third and fourth, respectively.
It was a very spectacular drive from Hamilton, who began in seventh and mentioned he was fighting severe again ache exacerbated by his automotive’s instability, a automotive Mercedes workforce precept Toto Wolff referred to as a “s***field to drive” in his post-race radio message to Hamilton.
Verstappen’s victory means the Dutchman surpasses Sebastian Vettel’s report of most podium finishes in a Purple Bull automotive, with 66 high three finishes in his 126 races with the constructor.
It was additionally redemption of kinds for Verstappen, who crashed out when main final yr’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a consequence of tire failure.
“You may by no means make up what you misplaced final yr,” Verstappen mentioned on Sky Sports activities. “However at the moment we had unbelievable tempo and we might take care of the tires. We had been a tiny bit fortunate with the retirements however our automotive was actually good at the moment. Total, actually proud of the stability of the automotive.
“Tire habits, along with normal grip of the automotive, that is what you want round right here. In the long run, to have one-two because the workforce is a very good day for us
“I believe each weekend is a bit completely different, you actually need to be exact and do little issues for race administration.”
After his retirement, Leclerc mentioned at the moment “hurts” for each him personally and for the workforce.
“We actually must look into that for it to not occur once more,” he advised Sky Sports activities. “I do not actually discover the correct phrases to explain (it), clearly its very, very disappointing. I dunno, we actually must look into it.
“We have been quick and we did not have notably massive issues within the first a part of the season … however we did not change huge issues, if something we made issues higher.”
However there might be little time for Ferrari to repair its issues, because the groups head to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Canadian Grand Prix subsequent weekend.
