{"id":13874,"date":"2025-10-27T11:32:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/verstappen-closes-the-gap-after-unexpected-podium-finish\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:38","slug":"verstappen-closes-the-gap-after-unexpected-podium-finish","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/verstappen-closes-the-gap-after-unexpected-podium-finish\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen closes the gap after unexpected podium finish"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Max Verstappen did not expect to finish on the podium at the Mexico City Grand Prix after his struggles in qualifying so the Dutchman was not overly disappointed that a late virtual safety car denied him the chance to turn his third place into second.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>McLaren&#8217;s race winner Lando Norris moved one point clear of teammate Oscar Piastri at the top of the standings, with Red Bull&#8217;s Verstappen closing the gap at the top to 36 points from 40 coming into Sunday&#8217;s race.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The four-times world champion started fifth on the grid after complaining of a lack of grip in Saturday&#8217;s qualifying but the Dutch driver finished less than a second behind Ferrari&#8217;s Charles Leclerc, who was struggling with his tyres at the end.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A virtual safety car on the penultimate lap, deployed when Carlos Sainz spun and stopped with smoke coming from his Williams, came as a godsend for Leclerc.\u00a0&#8220;Sometimes the safety car works for you, and sometimes it works against you,&#8221; said Verstappen.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Would have been fun, I think, to the end. Well, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending, but it would have been a fun ending for everyone to watch.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Verstappen did an extended first stint on medium tyres before switching to softs while his rivals made earlier pit stops. The strategy paid dividends as he moved past Ferrari&#8217;s Lewis Hamilton, after an early battle, on lap 47.\u00a0He then climbed to third when several drivers, including Mercedes&#8217; George Russell, Piastri and Haas&#8217;s Oliver Bearman, made second stops.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Personally, I didn&#8217;t expect to be on the podium,&#8221; Verstappen told reporters. &#8220;I think even in the first stint, it was not really looking like it. At the time, I thought we were just slow and struggling on tyres.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Once we bolted on the softs, we were a little bit more competitive, a bit happier,&#8221; he added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13450,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-13874","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Verstappen did an extended first stint on medium tyres before switching to softs while his rivals made earlier pit stops.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Verstappen did an extended first stint on medium tyres before switching to softs while his rivals made earlier pit stops.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18792,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13874\/revisions\/18792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}