Max Verstappen insisted he "knew" he could record the fastest lap of the Spanish Grand Prix without risking a penalty, despite being advised against it by his Red Bull team.
The Dutchman recorded a Grand Slam in Barcelona – the third of his Formula 1 career so far. He qualified on pole, won the race by leading every lap and, towards the end, recorded the fastest lap of the race.
He had been advised against attempting that last part. After all, he had been shown a black and white flag for repeatedly exceeding track limits during the race.
That meant he was just one more offence away from picking up a five-second time penalty. Aware of that, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase urged Verstappen not to think about the fastest lap and focus on keeping his nose clean.
Regardless, the defending champion pushed to make sure he shot to the top of the fastest lap timesheets. He managed it without picking up a penalty in the process, but team boss Christian Horner suggested the subject would be raised after the race.
"He and his engineer have a relationship like an old married couple. You could hear them talking over the radio, almost like arguing over which channel shall we watch," he joked. "Having had three strikes, the next one was a time penalty and if there was a safety car or something like that, that could have been extremely painful.
"The engineer is trying to manage Max and say, 'Don't take any risks, bring it home and keep it between the lines'. Max, I think he wasn't aware he was exceeding the limits and he just wanted that extra point for the fastest lap.
"He's in the car and he knows. Of course, we'll talk about it – in a situation where there was more to lose than that then we'd talk about it very firmly. All we can do is pass on the information and what he chooses to do with that information, he's in control of that."
Echoing his boss' words, Verstappen told reporters after the race that he never felt like he was going to trigger that penalty even as he pushed for the fastest lap. He said: "Well, I kept it within the white lines, I just went a bit faster on the lap. So I didn't do anything wrong.
"They don't know how much pace I have in the car, right, when they tell me, 'This is the fastest lap, don't bother'. But I knew that I could do it. So yeah, I just had to keep it within the white lines but this is something I think we can laugh about already. I was laughing about it with Helmut after the race so I'm pretty sure that they're quite happy."
