Verstappen: 'Sometimes I couldn't press the radio button' - Capital Sports
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Max Verstappen. Photo/TEAMTALK MEDIA

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Verstappen: ‘Sometimes I couldn’t press the radio button’

LONDON, United Kingdom, Sep 27 – Max Verstappen has admitted he was hesitant to engage his radio button as the rain came pouring down in Sunday’s Russian GP.

Verstappen put in arguably one of his best drives ever at Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, racing his way from 20th on the grid to second at the chequered flag.

He was, however, given a helping hand in the closing laps as the rain came down.

Verstappen had worked his way up to seventh place on a dry track but that’s where his progress stalled.

With it appearing as if the Red Bull was going to lose a hefty chunk of points to title rival Lewis Hamilton, who was chasing down Lando Norris for the win, a light drizzle began to fall.

Catching out the drivers through Turns 5 to 7 but dry in other places, Verstappen was onto the radio to discuss strategy with Red Bull.

But, as the rain grew steadily heavier, even strategy talks became difficult with the Dutchman revealing he needed both hands just to keep his car on the track, so pressing the radio button wasn’t ideal.

Ultimately the driver made the call to pit for intermediates, the team agreeing, and Verstappen was into the pits and up to second place.

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“Naturally when you’re driving on slicks and it starts raining, it’s more of a driver feel, so they kept on asking me,” he explained after the race.

“Communication is very important when it’s like that – so they kept on asking me, even though sometimes I couldn’t press the radio button because you’re trying to keep the car on the track.

“I was saying, the lap before, I think we still have to continue, because I was only losing like eight, nine seconds and then yeah, that lap, when we boxed, at one point it was so hard to keep the car on the track.

“I was like ‘we need to box’ but you’re not entirely sure. Then the team said ‘OK, we’ll box’, they called me in and it was the right call.”

Verstappen left the Sochi circuit trailing Hamilton, who won the race, by two points.

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