Verstappen: Lion Unleashed

I always feel confident.

Even whenever I would be driving last,

I would still feel confident.

People easily say I'm an aggressive driver or whatever.

That's where you go when you don't leave space.

This is my moment to win the championship.

He's a young guy and he's going for it.

Yes!

Oh, my God!

Yes! Oh my God!

Max Verstappen, the new world champion!

The world champion!

This is going to really help me.

Is that alright? Testing, testing. Hello? Can you hear me?

It was it was a very crazy day, you know, at the time.

The week after, I was also very busy with all kinds of commitments.

So then I took some time off to spend time with family, friends...

I just really enjoyed it because the season was so busy and so intense

that we really needed a bit of a break from Formula 1.

But for me now, my goal in life and racing is achieved

and it makes you a lot more relaxed from the inside.

Yeah.

At the time I was still trying to close the gap. I could see 11 seconds

I'm never going to close that within five laps.

But I said to myself, it doesn't matter, I'll just keep pushing.

I'm not going to give up now and drive slow to the line.

I'm going to give it everything I have to not make it look easy.

But, of course, at the time I was not very happy

and I was not looking forward to the flag.

But then, luckily, things started to change afterwards.

I didn't get told immediately. I had the yellow flag on my wheel.

There were safety cars, I was like, "Wow, something must've happened."

And then I drove past the incident

and I thought "I hope we're going to restart the race"

because the car was at an annoying angle

and to get it away from there would be quite tricky.

When I saw his car standing on track in that corner...

I knew immediately that the safety car would come in.

So then the pack would be all together

and that gave us a lot of hope again.

Can you confirm please, Max?

-Is he right behind me? -He will be.

I was jumping up, I was sitting in the chair upstairs in the office

and, yeah, that made me jump up.

"Yeah, now we have a chance if they restart the race.

For sure, he will have to go at it on the last lap."

The tension was building up each lap

and was getting more intense by the minute.

And time was ticking because we saw that we didn't have many laps to go.

Of course everyone was waiting to see what would happen with the safety car

but in the end we knew Max had pitted, he had fresher tires,

and if the race would get a restart, we'd be in a very good position.

I think all the cars ahead of you are going to pass Hamilton,

everybody behind you will stay in position.

I was happy that was happening, which is a normal procedure.

And then you're just getting ready

because you're very focused on getting all the switches right

and making sure you have the most power available for that final lap.

But yeah, I knew that was my opportunity to go for it.

They were quiet. I guess they were very nervous for that final lap.

"This is going to be all or nothing."

So I was behind him, lining up to get a good restart,

and I knew I had the better tyres, with more grip.

They're always very determined to go for it.

Mode one, Strat one.

This is my moment to win the championship.

This is it, this is it.

Now it happens.

He didn't expect me to pass in that corner.

So I had a bit of a gap out of the corner.

I must say I didn't expect him to do it in this corner.

I thought he would have waited till the end of the straight

with a good slipstream or whatever.

I discussed it with Max: "Why this? Why in that corner?"

He said, "He didn't expect me to do it there."

We were running less down force that weekend and had good top speed.

So I needed to get ahead

because without the DRS when just you're racing each other

I can defend as I have a better top speed.

So even if you came back next to me

you would never get in front because of the top speed advantage.

So I said with my grip, I have to go for it in that corner

then I just have to close the next two corners after the long straight.

So that's why...

I mean, this happens very quick, I'm explaining it in a few seconds,

but in your mind these things go really quick and you just go for it.

He was close enough to do the overtake...

and I must say it was a very special moment.

No, Mikey. No, no, Mikey!

Yep. Toto's not so happy.

So I'm weaving a bit on the straight to try and break the draught,

and then it's all about defending.

You know, making sure he doesn't have a gap to go into.

The thing was I was more nervous on the long straight

when Lewis tried to-re pass him again

because he had, of course, the engine in his favour,

so, of course, the next opportunity

we knew was the only chance to take Lewis

and he did it in a fantastic way.

I still get goose bumps now when I see it.

It was unbelievable power. He came from very far.

My emotions in the last few corners on this lap were through the roof

because for the whole race it looked like I was losing the championship

and now I'm winning it.

I couldn't believe it myself,

and going through the last corner, I had a nice drift on the exit...

Come on, you beauty! Come on!

You win the championship, this was something...

Everyone was going crazy, the whole team.

Max Verstappen, the new world champion!

The world champion!

I was insanely happy

but at the same time trying to control my leg

because I had this cramp in my leg the whole lap I was driving.

Because you keep going full-throttle and you're not relaxing your leg,

otherwise you cannot push.

The muscle clenches, gets smaller and becomes rock solid,

like a tennis ball, which is very painful.

With the adrenaline in your body, it's doable,

but as soon as you cross the line your body starts to relax a bit.

Then the pain starts to come down your leg

while everyone's screaming in your ear.

But of course being so happy, it takes over from the pain.

Everybody was obviously very happy.

For me it was just holding him - like, "We've done it!" Yeah.

Yeah. It's unbelievable.

In the end when Max passed the finish line it was a big relief.

Tears were falling and we were cheering and crying.

It was all emotions together.

We had an intense few minutes together and it was fantastic.

It's like a lot of weight fell off our shoulders.

At least off mine.

It was our main goal to win the world championship.

This is what we work for. This was our dream.

This is where we all worked so hard, driving thousands of kilometres,

spending time together in the van, driving on circuits,

driving in the wet, cold...

Cold hands, sleeping in hotels always from home.

We did that so many days, so many times, all for this moment.

It makes everything you've done before really satisfying.

In go-carting there were tough times as well.

You're travelling a lot more in the car in terms of hours.

Sometimes good things happen, bad things happen,

but it's very rewarding at the end if you get to where you wanted to be

and achieve your life goal in racing,