Exhausted Verstappen critical of Red Bull after Miami GP win

Max Verstappen visibly had a hard time physically during the Miami Grand Prix. The world champion looked exhausted and had to take time to recover after his victory. "I think I've lost 3 kilos," said the Dutchman, who narrowed his gap to championship leader Charles Leclerc to 19 points with his third win of the season.

The last ten laps especially were difficult after Lando Norris (McLaren) crashed, and the safety car brought the field back together. The driver from Limburg had to squeeze everything out of his Red Bull to keep Leclerc away in his Ferrari. "On the hard tire, we were very evenly matched, and I really had to give everything, but for the spectators, it was fun."

Verstappen would have preferred to finish this "tough race" in a controlled manner. "This one was very nice, but it was very difficult. They started counting after fifteen laps. It was great, but the safety car did not help. Otherwise, I could have finished the race in a controlled manner. Now it was stressful for everyone," Verstappen said.

"It was difficult to be very consistent because it was very tough. So you couldn't push too hard, and I was feeling it. I had a bit of a hard time after the safety car, but it went well when the tires were warm."

Despite his strong performance, Verstappen was critical of Red Bull. "We still have problems to solve. The reliability is not optimal yet. We are fast, but you can see that my training on Friday was terrible, and my teammate Perez suffered a loss of engine power during the race, so we have to be on top of those issues. It's still a bit too hit and miss."

Team boss Christian Horner was satisfied with the gap with Leclerc being reduced to 19 points. "Max's recovery is good after Friday. He had a good start and used it to overtake Leclerc when he had to," said Horner. "The blood pressure is again high. It will be another year just like last year, and that is good for the sport."

The next race is in Barcelona in two weeks.