31 May 2023 , 16:57
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Television cameras at the Monaco Grand Prix missed a moment of "genuine respect" between Max Verstappen and his closest challenger Fernando Alonso.
The Dutchman had produced a monster third sector on his final qualifying lap a day earlier to snatch what would have been a very popular pole away from Alonso. And Verstappen converted that into yet another victory on race day with the 41-year-old Spaniard his closest on-track challenger.
With just 0.084 seconds splitting their best lap time sin Q3 on Saturday, Alonso had been mightily close to his first Formula 1 pole position in more than a decade. Verstappen needed to produce magic of his own to stop the Aston Martin star and there was plenty of mutual admiration between them afterwards.
Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, presenter Tom Clarkson pointed out a "lovely moment" that happened between them before the TV cameras began to roll at the start of the post-qualifying press conference.
"They've only been out of the cars, say, five minutes, they have a quick chat on the grid. Then they come to the press conference and Fernando came in first, and he sat down in his chair and he sort of was slumped a little bit – and you could see he was just, I think, reflecting on what he had just done.
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"Max was the next driver to arrive, and they just sort of... I'm not going to say it was a hug, but they just sort of squeezed each other's shoulders and didn't say a word to each other. This is before all the cameras were turned on, and, right there, I saw a mutual respect between those two that is that is not often seen, I think, in Formula 1.
"As I say, no words were exchanged, but just genuine respect about what they had just done over one lap of Monaco – and I would say I haven't seen two better laps of that track in 25 years than what we saw from Alonso and Verstappen in qualifying."
Verstappen had snatched pole from Alonso on Saturday (Getty Images)Alonso could not get the better of Verstappen on race day but managed to keep the Red Bull racer honest. And team boss Christian Horner was full of praise for the Spaniard when asked about him by Mirror Sport after the race.
"They're [Aston Martin] the closest to us but you can see the rest of the field is a long way behind," he said. "It was only Fernando who was able to stay in touch with Max, to keep within the pit stop window and to be dancing around that safety car window as well.
"It's always great leveller when the circuit is a bit damp or the conditions vary – then you see how the drivers adapt and you can see both of those two guys, they were head and shoulders above the rest of the field. It's great to see his confidence and the way he's driving the car.
"He and Max are very similar in many respects – in the way they drive and how tenacious they are, they're always pushing. You can see that they enjoy that competition as well."