Verstappen praises rookie Antonelli after tough São Paulo GP | OneFootball

Max Verstappen had a good race at the São Paulo GP F1 this Sunday and was one of the highlights by climbing to third place on the podium even after starting from the pit lane. The Dutchman from Red Bull fought a tough battle for second place, which went to Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes. After the race, the experienced driver gave advice to the Italian rookie.

“In a debut season, you go through a real emotional roller coaster sometimes. Some weekends are better than others. Sometimes you have high expectations and other times, things don’t go as expected. You make mistakes, you have good weekends. But in the end, all of this is part of the learning process,” he said.

“You need to make mistakes as well to become a better driver, even in Formula 1. And I think that so far this year, Kimi has had a great learning curve,” he praised.

Kimi Antonelli did well at the Interlagos Circuit. The 19-year-old driver started the weekend in tenth place in free practice. Then, in qualifying for the sprint, he finished second and kept that position in the sprint race. Finally, he withstood pressure from Verstappen and finished the São Paulo GP in second place.

“The last ten laps were very stressful with Max coming up on new tires, but fortunately I managed to keep up the pace and finish in second place,” said Antonelli.

Next Formula 1 GP

After the São Paulo GP, which saw Lando Norris from McLaren crowned as champion, the drivers return to action between November 20 and 23 for the Las Vegas GP. This will be the third-to-last race of the season.

Max Verstappen is in third place and, despite seeing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri pulling away ahead of him, still has a chance at the title. The Dutchman has 341 points, while the Briton reached 390 after winning in Brazil. Piastri, in second, has 366 points.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.