Marko heaps praise: 'Incredible precision from Verstappen'

From P4, Max Verstappen drove well to win the 19 lap sprint race. His lead at the finish? 13 (!) seconds. Helmut Marko saw 'perfection' from Max Verstappen in a 'perfect' RB20 on Saturday.

Things were not going so well for Red Bull Racing on Friday. The Austrian team initially had excellent chances of winning the sprint pole, but their chances were dashed when the rain poured down. In wet conditions, Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished no further than P4 and P6, but in the sprint race both driver got back on the podium, with even a convincing win for the Dutchman.

Everything came together in sprint race for Red Bull

"The decisive factor was that Max had a car that really drove perfectly," Marko told German television channel Sky, who then paid Verstappen himself a fine compliment. "And of course it was also due to the incredible precision when overtaking [Max]."

Speaking to Austrian ServusTV , the 80-year-old consultant also briefly addressed what the exact reason why Verstappen's sprint qualifying was somewhat disappointing in wet conditions. On Friday, Marko said that the three-time world champion was not really getting his tyres up to temperature and presumably that was due to slightly too low tyre pressure. Formula 1 teams can choose what tyre pressure they drive at, although a minimum and maximum is set by the FIA every weekend. This is for the sake of safety.