feature-image

Reuters

feature-image

Reuters

Toto Wolff has been offering quite a lot of content to the ‘meme factory’ since the start of this season, thanks to his hilarious on-camera reactions to certain incidents. In Brazil, it was his finger-pointing celebration after Lewis Hamilton passed a resilient Max Verstappen for the lead.

Watch What’s Trending Now!

A couple of race weekends later, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Wolff is at it again. And yet again, his reaction was in response to a moment involving Verstappen, which subsequently favored Hamilton.

ADVERTISEMENT

What happened at the end of qualifying?

Hamilton set his final lap time on the board and found himself at the top of the timesheets. What followed was a rather painful waiting game as Verstappen raced around the circuit for his final shot at pole position.

The Dutchman produced a couple of exemplary purple lap times through sectors 1 & 2 and looked very much the man to claim the first-ever pole in Saudi Arabia. However, the tables turned quite dramatically, meters away from the finishing line.

ADVERTISEMENT

article-image

Reuters

Verstappen pushed his Red Bull a bit too hard, late-braked, and slammed his car into the barriers around the exit of the final corner. He did try his best to limp on to see the chequered flag. But, keeping in mind the significance of the damage dealt, Verstappen had to switch off the engine and take the long walk back to the parc ferme.

ADVERTISEMENT

While this chaos unfolded, cameras turned their attention to Wolff in the garage.

ADVERTISEMENT

Wolff does a Bottas as Max Verstappen crashes out

Verstappen crashed out, and the cameras perfectly caught Wolff’s reaction. The Austrian unintentionally pulled off Bottas’ reaction to the Hamilton-Verstappen crash in Monza. ‘Oh no! Anyway…” the wise man once said.

And while Wolff did not say the exact same words, his reaction to Verstappen’s crash pretty much summed it up. Wolff gave the ‘dejected’ nod as he watched Verstappen shunt his Red Bull into the wall. It almost looked like he was disappointed.

ADVERTISEMENT

But, we all know how he would have been reacting on the inside; pure joy and a massive sigh of relief. Mercedes would have hoped for a Hamilton pole, coming into Jeddah.

ADVERTISEMENT

But, as an icing on the cake, Verstappen’s crash has handed Bottas P2 and subsequently, a front-row lock-out for Mercedes as well; their first since Mexico. Hence, is this where Verstappen’s title hopes start to diminish? We’ll know on Sunday night.

Watch Story: From Lewis Hamilton to the Miz: When F1 & WWE Crossed Over

ADVERTISEMENT

Share this with a friend:

Link Copied!

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Written by

author-image

Rohit Kumar

1,915 Articles

Rohit Kumar is an F1 author at EssentiallySports. He has been an ardent follower of the racing series since 2007, with his love for the sport coinciding with his love for Kimi Raikkonen. He is also an ardent follower of Sebastian Vettel and Aston Martin Racing. With his favorite track being Hockenheim and his favorite turn being Eau Rouge (Spa, Belgium), Rohit is a strong advocate for bringing back the pre-turbo-hybrid era V10 engines and their screams. Apart from being an author, Rohit is also a trained tennis player, having qualified for national tournaments. He has been a part of the Estilio Academy for over a decade.

Know more

ADVERTISEMENT