Verstappen: 'Flying start at Imola was also a surprise for me'.

Looking back at his glorious win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Max Verstappen sees the benefit of making a good start, and confesses to being surprised at the Honda power available to him on the start line at Imola.

"It’s never easy, a race like this," the Dutchman began in his retrospective in conversation with Autosport. "It’s quite stressful out there to make the right calls." After conquering the hard-fought P1, Verstappen managed to finish the race with over twenty seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

A good start is half the battle

Verstappen also knows that the flying start in the rain, although also a surprise for him, was the key to his Grand Prix. "The key, I think, was to have that good launch, which was also a bit of a surprise to me!"

The Dutchman continued, referring to the much-discussed recent improvements to the Honda engine: "After last year, where we always struggled in the wet, over the winter and the beginning of the year we definitely made some improvements with that and [last weekend] it was very good."