Max Verstappen feels F1 sprint format ‘takes magic away’ from Sunday but Lewis Hamilton disagrees

Max Verstappen believes F1’s sprint format takes away a little bit of the “magic” and “excitement” from the main grand prix. 
(L to R): Winner Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing in Sprint parc ferme with second placed Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes
(L to R): Winner Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing in Sprint parc ferme with second placed…

The Red Bull driver, who has stated his dislike of the sprint weekend format on several occasions, cruised to an easy victory ahead of 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in a uneve♏ntful race𝓀 at the United States Grand Prix on Saturday. 

Other than having to robustly defend the lead from 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Charles Leclerc’s fast-starting Ferrari on the run to Tur🐼n 1, Verstappen was unchallenged as he built up a comfortable 9.4-second lead over Hamilton in 19 laps. 

Asked if he has found any enjoyment from the sprint races this year, Verstappen sarcastically replied: “𝓰Love it. It’s fantastic.

“If you want my honest opinion abo꧅ut the sprint weekends, I don't really get🧸 excited by it. 

“I just feel li🐽ke once you complete qualifying, you're a bit lost. I feel like we only need one qualifying in the weeken🍒d where you really put everything on the line and it feels great. 

“This morning as well, like you put it on P1, but I'm like… sig𒐪hs… It’s a Saturday and there’ꦕs not many points anyway for the race.

“And besides that, like now we've done this race everyone more or less knows what's going to happen tomorrow between all the cars in ter🎉ms of pace.

“So takes a little bit the excitement away from it. If we wouldn't have done today, and we only had that qualifying yesterday, you don't really know what's gওoing to happen before the race. 

“So everyone gets very excited, turning on the TV, because you don't know. And also we didn't know. Now we know, a little b♎it.”

Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB19. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, United States Grand Prix, Austin, Texas,
Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB19. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, United States…

Hamilton jokingly interjected: “It sounds like🌳 you are a bit bored.”

To which, Verstappen responded: “I’🍌m not bored but if I would be a fan I would just be disappointed because then you know you're more or less know the picture and nothing crazy happens. You know what's going to happen tomorrow. 

“So I find that takes away that magic of waking up on the Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon and you turn on the TV, and you had qualifying, but you're not sure which car is going to be qu🧸ickest, in most of the years, and it takes that magic away I find.” 

Hamilton, who finished nearly nine seconds clear of Leclerc in a ❀distant second, offered a different perspective to Verstappen.

“For us, it's fun. For me, it's fun,” he said. "I like having the extra opportunity to get out ther🤡e and try to squeeze every little bit and more out of the package thatജ we have. Can it be better? Sure.

“I think it’s been exciting for people so I personally quite like the sprint weekends. Particularly the Friday I re𝔍ally like, where you only have one practice session and then you are straigh🅘t into quali.” 

Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari SF-23. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, United States Grand Prix, Austin, Texas, USA,
Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari SF-23. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 19, United States Grand…

Leclerc echoed Hamilton’s view but feels th🔯ere is roꩲom for improvement. 

“I think𝓡 there are some things that are nice, others that are a bit less nice,” he explained. 🐽;

“What I enjoy are the Fridays with one free practice and th❀en you go stra💦ight into qualifying, this is something that as a driver I like, because FP1 then becomes a real session. 

“In a🎶 normal weekend FP1, FP2, FP3, it’s really plenty of laps before you get to qualifying, which is maybe a bit too many. But then there are maybe other things that we need to look into. 

"I think in Qatar it was very exciting because we had two compounds that were very different. One that was very good in the first six or seven lap🦂s and then had a lot of degradation, and the other that was really good towards the end of the race. That makes the sprint race really exciting. 

“Otherwise we’ve got races like today where everybody, apart from Carlos unfortunately, uses the medium and ไthen it is a bit of a drain.”

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