Wednesday, February 9, 2022 09:33 – Last update: 09:47
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There was not much difference or Max Verstappen should have thrown in the towel during the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver reveals that he suffered from cramp at the end to such an extent that he almost gave up. According to him, the race should not have lasted one more lap.
Verstappen had an excellent restart in Abu Dhabi, which allowed him to pass Hamilton on the last lap and take the title. However, it had come close to ending in a major drama. Verstappen almost had to surrender because of the pain in his legs. However, there was still one all-decisive lap to go. “What was going on in my head at the time? I was like, ‘I have to overtake him (Hamilton). There’s only one option here. I’m not going to finish second,'” Verstappen explained in an interview with The Guardian.
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Verstappen almost had to give up fight due to cramp
Verstappen continued, “I tried to really be there with the restart. It was all going well, until I crossed the line and started to feel the cramp in my leg. It’s one of the most painful things that can happen, because you go full throttle for a long time. You feel the muscle tighten and become like a tennis ball. Of course, the adrenaline helps, because if it happened when you were just walking around, you couldn’t move. It’s impossible. But I had no option; I had to.”
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Eventually, Verstappen managed to make a successful overtaking attempt on Hamilton, but then he had to finish the lap. On the straight, however, his rival came alongside again, but Verstappen could do little due to the cramp. “You then have two very long straights and on that second one, where Lewis came back, I felt my foot tremble. I couldn’t control it because the muscle had a spasm,” Verstappen said.
“It was all over the place.”
If the race in Abu Dhabi had lasted one more lap, it would have been over and done with for Verstappen, he says. “It was all over. One more lap and I would not have been able to finish the race. On the last lap, the stress levels were so high that your body probably reacts to that. But you can’t give up.”
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