‘Too bad it was not a 6-hour race’

For a four -time world champion, Max Verstappen was remarkably satisfied with a fourth place in the GP of China. It was more than what the Red Bull driver had hoped for.

“At the end of the race the speed was a bit more in it, that gives some hope,” Verstappen told Viaplay.

After a bad start, the reigning world champion fell back to sixth place. But in the second part of the race he fought back to fourth place, thanks in part to a nice catch -up action on Charles Leclerc.

Before the pit stop, the speed in his Red Bull was hard to find. “I drove at the beginning the way my team wanted to save the tires.”

“I said we would be too slow and that turned out. They walked away pretty quickly. After the pit stop it also started difficult, but the longer we drove, the faster we went. It was only a 6-hour race,” he laughed.

The 27-year-old Dutchman thought that all the opportunities were lost after his lesser start. “Absolutely. After the start that place six was the maximum. Fortunately it came to us a little more on the hard tire.”

Prior to the race in China, Verstappen said that Red Bull is currently only the fourth team of Formula 1. The fact that he kept the two Ferraris behind him was therefore satisfied.

For now, because it will have to be better in the future. “We just have to get started. We know that we are not as strong now as other teams, we have to work on that.”

The next race will be in two weeks on the challenging circuit of Suzuka in Japan.