Ferrari icon showers praise on Max Verstappen's first lap antics in the Mexican GP

Max Verstappen's lap one antics at the Mexican GP led former Ferrari man, Gino Rosato, to applaud the Dutchman's car control. The Red Bull driver had started fifth on the grid and went four-wide at the end of the straight, alongside the scarlet duo and Lando Norris.

Verstappen arrived at the Mexican GP of reducing his deficit to the top of the drivers' standings, which stood at 40 points. Moreover, with the championship leader Oscar Piastri starting a dismal seventh for the race, he had an opportunity to gain several points in the drivers' table. But, he himself started fifth and eyed at least a podium finish by the end of the race.

He then had a lightning getaway from the grid and overtook George Russell in the lead up to turn one, but as the chaos looked inevitable, he bailed out of the corner and decided to cut across the grass. This maneuver caught the eye of the paddock, including Rosato, who captioned his Instagram story:

"How good is Max Verstappen with an F1 car to maneuver in this way to bring back the car on track!! Should have got a +10 sec prize 🙏🏻🙏🏻😂😂"

Former Ferrari man Gino Rosato reacting to Max Verstappen cutting corners 1-3 at the Mexican GP on the opening lap on his Instagram story | Source: Instagram/@ginorosato

After this, Verstappen had to concede the positions that he had gained while lawnmowing, but he stayed ahead of George Russell, who was unhappy with the reigning champion retaining P4 at the start of the race.

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Max Verstappen asserts that he did nothing wrong on lap one of the Mexican GP

Red Bull's Max Verstappen on the opening lap of the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Mexico - Source: Getty

After the race, paddock extensively chatted about how the lap one incident, where multiple cars went over the grass, had seemingly benefited from this action. So, in the post-race interviews in the media pen, Max Verstappen stumbled across the same question, but he dismissed such assertions and claimed that he did nothing wrong.

The Dutchman said (via GPBlog):

"It's not my problem. It was just very hectic in a lot of different scenarios, and I felt like I didn't do anything wrong. On the medium, it was a big struggle for everyone, but once on the soft, it looked more competitive."

On the other hand, while Verstappen gained a considerable amount of points on Piastri, the lead of the drivers' standings was taken over by Lando Norris. The Briton had dominantly won the Mexican GP as he led all 71 laps of the race and cruised home to a crucial victory.

This means that Verstappen sits 36 points behind the championship lead with four race weekends left to go in the 2025 season.