'Couldn't Have Been Better': Verstappen Ecstatic After Winning First Race Of 2024

Saturday, 02 March 2024 at 19:00

Max Verstappen commented on his dominant victory at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix after finishing more than 20 seconds ahead of his teammate.

After starting from pole position, the triple World Champion led every single lap of Saturday's race at the Bahrain International Circuit to take the victory.

The race wasn't interrupted by any safety car, so the Dutchman just comfortably managed his lead at the front throughout the whole race until the finish line. He said right after the race:

"It went even better than expected. The car was really nice to drive on every compound, we had a lot of pace, and it was super enjoyable to drive."

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While many fans hoped for a different result than Verstappen winning the race with a comfortable lead over everyone, the Dutchman suggested he thoroughly enjoyed it.

"We stayed out of trouble and it is a great start to the year, it couldn't have been better. It was a lot of fun."

The 26-year-old didn't seem to have any kind of issues, consistently put in laps that were at least half a second faster from his rivals and even collected the fastest lap of the race after his second pit stop.

"It is always very special to have these kinds of days because they do not happen that often where it all goes perfect. You're just one with the car and everything feels just great."

The only crucial thing for the Red Bull driver to do was cover off Charles Leclerc in the run to the first corner of the opening lap, which he did very well.

The triple world Champion had a great launch off the line and immediately switched from left to right to cover off the inside line into the corner, giving Leclerc no option but to approach the first corner from the outside. He added:

"The start was good, the first corner is a very tight hairpin so naturally, you want to defend the inside just to be safe. So that's what we did, and basically from there onwards, we just focused on our own race,"