Verstappen: 'We can certainly do better than we showed in Bahrain'

It looked very good for Max Verstappen in Bahrain. After a dominant weekend in practice and qualifying the Dutchman started from pole position. In the end it came down to a battle with Lewis Hamilton who eventually drew the longest straw. The differences between the two teams are small and although Mercedes won, Verstappen is confident for the rest of the season.

Missed opportunity

In the press conference Verstappen was asked if he was surprised by the small difference with Mercedes. He wasn't. Verstappen: "I wasn’t really surprised that they would be so close. I think they didn’t have the perfect lap in qualifying. And they are very close even though sometimes they don’t even say it. But they are very close."

Verstappen could taste victory and apart from how the fight with Hamilton developed, missing out is a missed opportunity. For example, Verstappen continued, "It's definitely a missed opportunity, but if we have a faster car it won't matter. After all, then we have 22 races to finish ahead of them, but we'll see."

Exception in Bahrain?

The fact that the Red Bull did very well in Bahrain naturally creates expectations for the rest of the season. Was it an exception? Not really. "I have a good feeling it will not be," says Verstappen. In doing so, the Dutchman also notes that the race for him was not entirely flawless, which of course played a part.

"I mean I was battling with a few issues aswell, so it’s not lets say the smoothest race from our side in general. We can definitely do better than what we saw there. On the other hand, they can do better as well. So we have to make sure we keep improving and bring new parts to the car to make it faster."