Red Bull star Max Verstappen's progress at the 2025 Mexican GP was halted by the late race virtual safety car brought out by Carlos Sainz. The Dutchman came out and invoked memories of AD21 (Abu Dhabi 2021) during the post-race interview when questioned about the VSC.Verstappen started the race in P5 and got up to P4 after narrowly avoiding the barrier on the exit of Turn 1. However, the Dutchman was the only driver in the Top 5 on the medium tires and lacked pace compared to those on the soft tires.Charles Leclerc went onto the medium tires for his last stint, whereas Max Verstappen was on the better soft compound. As a result, the Dutchman caught the Monegasque by over 10 seconds and got into the DRS of the Ferrari with just a couple of laps left.Unfortunately for Red Bull, on Lap 70, Carlos Sainz spun, parked up in the stadium section, and then his car caught on fire, which brought out the virtual safety car. As a result, the Dutchman, who was lining up a move on Leclerc, had to settle for P3.During the post-race interview, Max Verstappen was questioned about what he was thinking when the VSC came out and whether he was frustrated, to which he replied,“No, not really. I mean sometimes the safety car has been very nice to me in my career, so sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It's how it goes in racing. Would've been a bit more fun in the end- well, more fun for me than for Charles defending- but it would've been a fun ending for everyone to watch!”The Dutchman’s statement about the safety car being nice to him refers to the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, where he battled Lewis Hamilton for the F1 title. The Briton was comfortably in the lead of the race and on his way to the eighth F1 title when a late safety car came out.Max Verstappen pitted for fresher tires, and the FIA allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and the Dutchman to pass. The race was restarted with one lap to go, and the Red Bull driver made a pass, won the race, and his first ever F1 title.Max Verstappen reflects on his championship chances after the Mexican GPComing into the Mexican GP, Max Verstappen cut down the gap to the championship lead to 40 points from over 100 after the Dutch GP. However, the Red Bull driver had a subpar qualifying, managing only a P5 grid spot, and finished the race in P3, whereas Lando Norris won and took the championship lead.Yet, Verstappen was able to cut the gap down by another four points, down to 36 after the Mexican GP. When asked about the title chances after the race, the four-time F1 champion said,“Statistically, yes. But we have to win everything from now on.”“You have to have perfect weekends, and we didn't have that today. So it's going to be a tough challenge,” he addedLando Norris leads the championship from Oscar Piastri by one point after the Mexico City GP. With four races left on the calendar, Max Verstappen would need to outscore Norris by an average of 9 points every weekend to take the title.