Schumacher pleased not to 'crack under pressure' in Verstappen F1 duel
The Haas rookie turned in a battling drive in Hungary as he put the disappointment of his FP3 crash behind him with a determined display that saw him engage in wheel-to-wheel combat with more experienced drivers.
Schumacher profited from the first-corner carnage and found himself running in 10th place during the early stages. The German was able to hold off Verstappen’s Red Bull for 10 laps before the title contender eventually got by.
“I wasn’t anticipating being able to hold him off for so long, but I’m glad that I was able to and able to get the opportunity to fight with the top guys,” Schumacher said.
“I was fighting with Max twice on the road and was able to [increase] my experiences in that case, feel the pressure and not crack under pressure. So I think it’s a really positive day for us.”
Although he ultimately finished outside the points, Schumacher said the experience gave the whole team some “light at the end of the tunnel” heading into the summer break.
“Of course, I think it gave everybody a bit of light at the end of the tunnel after a disappointing day [on Saturday], I think today was a very, very positive day,” he added.
“Lots learned, lots to take away from here, and lots for everybody to look forward to in the summer break and coming back to Spa.”
In contrast, it was a frustrating day in the other side of the Haas garage, with Nikita Mazepin eliminated in a pit lane collision with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen.
The Russian was left to rue missing out on an opportunity to potentially capitalise on a crazy race and score his best result in F1 to date.
“It’s just really annoying, that was one race I really wanted to be in,” Mazepin said. “Not only for me, but this race offered a lot of opportunities and my team does really need those opportunities.
“It’s just a shame that other teams make mistakes and send cars out. It was obvious - I need to double-stack, I’m not able to hold people up in the pit lane so I need to go somewhere and I was willing to go to my box and could not have turned in any later and Alfa just came out and took my tyre off.
“Could have been [a big result] but it’s not going to be. But I strongly believe that I have a long career in F1 and that’s seriously not the way I wanted to go into the summer break, to leave this weekend tired, with a sore body and a sore neck, a lack of laps, and a lack of result is very fucking annoying.”
