Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has gained a huge championship advatage ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton was demoted to 11th place in Istanbul, despite setting the quickest time. Mercedes opted to change Hamilton’s internal combustion engine, triggering an automatic 10-place grid penalty on Sunday.
Hamilton currently leads the way by two points heading into the race, however the Dutchman needs to just get past Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas to be in with the shot for the win, with the Briton forced to carve his way up from outside the top 10.
Verstappen, who has struggled this weekend with understeer, said: “Going off at the beginning was tricky with the conditions, but compared to yesterday we managed to turn it around quite well. The laps overall were quite good, even though the last one we lost a bit down the straight.
“Overall, it’s quite a decent recovery compared to yesterday. Tomorrow, lining up in second, let’s wait and see what the weather will do, but overall I’m pretty happy.
“I should be a bit better, let’s see how competitive we will be in the race. The tyre wear seems quite high around the track, but it’s quite fun to drive.”
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Lewis Hamilton admits ‘difficult’ challenge at Turkish GP
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