Palmer praises Verstappen and Red Bull undercut: 'They caught Mercedes napping'

With his impressive undercut on Lewis Hamilton during the French Grand Prix, Max Verstappen surprised not only the Formula 1 viewing public, but also many connoisseurs. Looking back on this moment, Jolyon Palmer analyses this masterstroke of Red Bull in detail.

"Verstappen’s outlap, lap 18, was huge. His out-lap, compared to 18 for Hamilton (his in-lap on the used mediums) was a massive difference", Palmer said in his analysis for F1 TV.

The former driver continued: "The out-lap by Verstappen is what caught Mercedes out. It was a brilliant bit of driving from Verstappen." With this lap, as well as his strong in-lap, Verstappen managed to straighten out the gap to Hamilton, which was three seconds.

Mercedes is sleeping

As well as the Dutchman's racing prowess, it's also a wider Red Bull advantage that made this clever undercut possible, as Palmer knows: "he Red Bull car is also slightly better in this phase, it fires up the tyres a bit better, and they caught Mercedes napping."