Max Verstappen claimed that he was pleased that nothing happened to his RB20 this weekend as ‘Penelope Kvyat would think she brings bad luck’.
The Red Bull driver looked untroubled throughout the 53 laps of the Japanese GP as he sailed to another win at the Suzuka International Circuit, his third in a row. He started the race from pole position and won the race with the fastest lap to his name.
The Dutch driver was accompanied by his girlfriend Kelly Piquet and her daughter Penelope Kvyat to the track, just as they did at the Australian Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago.
However, speaking with ViaPlay, Max Verstappen pointed out that he was glad that he did not retire in Suzuka as he did in Melbourne, as the young Penelope would think that she brings bad luck. He said:
“She (Penelope) asked me why did you retire?’ in Australia and I said ‘Well, the car was on fire! I think Kelly is glad nothing happened today, otherwise, she (Penelope) might feel as if she brings bad luck.”
Max Verstappen analyzes his third win of the season in Suzuka
Max Verstappen stated that they made some changes overnight which worked as he had struggled with the car before the qualifying session on Saturday.
In his post-race press conference, the three-time world champion said:
“I think it was a very, very good win. It took a few laps to settle in a bit with the car, but I think we made some good changes to the car before going into qualifying, which then helped, you know, today.”
“So, yeah, basically after the first stint, some tiny adjustments were made to the car and that helped me then to feel even more comfortable and whenever I needed to go faster, I could.”
Max Verstappen added that he was able to look after the tires very nicely and believed that both he and Sergio Perez were competitive in the main race on Sunday, adding:
“Whenever I needed to look after my tires, I could. That’s always a very nice feeling to have once you’re driving. Medium tyres, Hard tyres… Possibly the Hard tires felt a bit better, but overall, on both sides, I think we were very competitive.”
It would be interesting to see if any other team can challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the sprint weekend in China as they will have an opportunity to upset the world champions due to a lack of additional practice sessions.
