Verstappen calls Pirelli: "Too bad we don't have this more often"

"We hadn't had the chance to really fight yet, then I'm not going to keep cruising behind them," said Verstappen to Sky Sports. He was told by his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase through the onboard radio that he shouldn't drive too close behind Lewis Hamilton.

"I had nothing to lose. In the worst case, it will be third place and otherwise a victory."

Max had expected more problems

On the hard tyres, the RB16 ran incredibly well on Sunday afternoon. The tyre issues Mercedes faced did not impact the Austrian team.

"I was quite surprised about that. But I was quite surprised," the 22-year-old driver, who came back on track right behind Valtteri Bottas after his pit stop, said. "I knew I was on the softer tyre and then it was a question of who would be fastest at the finish line."

Lewis Hamilton seemed to be going for one-stop, so Verstappen had to anticipate. "I pushed the pace a bit further as he was nine seconds ahead with twelve laps to go. In the end, he still had to get new tyres. I could just keep my lap times, I didn't suffer from anything."

Verstappen likes to see softer tyres more often

There were a lot of pitstops on Sunday and that made a lot more tactical possible. "It's a bit of a shame we don't have this on other circuits more often. Normally you always do a one-stop. You can see that this (softer tyres than usual, ed.) also gives more problems at Mercedes," Verstappen concluded.