Spa was “damage limitation” against fast opposition, says Verstappen

Max Verstappen says his run to an eventual fourth place at Spa was “damage limitation,” especially as he finished ahead of title rival Lando Norris.

Having taken pole Verstappen started 11th thanks to a grid penalty. He rose to fifth by the chequered flag, just in front of Norris, before gaining a place from the exclusion of George Russell.

Verstappen said that he couldn’t make further progress simply because he didn’t have a speed advantage over those who started ahead.

“The balance of the car wasn’t too bad always in the first few laps,” he said. “But of course, I also ran a lot in traffic, which probably also didn’t help. But yeah, we were just not faster than the cars around us, and then you just get stuck in that DRS train.

“And I think as a team, we maximised the performance today. Naturally, if you start P1 with the pace that we had, I think you’re fighting for the win, regardless. But starting P11, I knew that it was always going to be a damage limitation race.

“Looking at the championship, it was still a positive day. I extended my lead, where it could have also easily been calculating losses. So from that side, of course, it’s a positive day.”

Verstappen made it clear that beating closest pursuer Norris was the key achievement of the weekend.

“Naturally it’s always better to gain points than lose points,” he said. “And today could have been either way, because he was very fast behind me, but at the same time I was also hunting in front of me.

“I think also naturally we were on two mediums and a hard. I think today, a hard tyre would have helped. Of course, George won the race on a one-stop. But I don’t think we had the tyre wear or tyre life to do that anyway.

“So yeah, also there a few things to analyse, but as a team today, we did a good job. We definitely did the right thing with the strategy, to try and be a bit aggressive initially, to try and get ahead of a few, and it made my race a little bit better.”

Regarding the RB20’s form he added: “With the car at the moment that is probably not the quickest in the race, it’s about just limiting the damage, and trying to be as close as I can be every single time. And that’s what we have been doing lately.

“Next year, I would just hope that we can find a little bit more performance, because we will make our lives a bit easier in the race.”

Verstappen acknowledged that the form book has changed a lot since the days of Red Bull domination.

“I think it shifts a little bit, for sure,” he said. “Constantly, McLaren has been really quick. Mercedes has been quick, but not everywhere. And from our side, we have a bit of work to do. We know that, we have a few things to analyse as well, what to do with the car for the remainder of the season.”