Verstappen impressed with Mercedes: "Shows they have a lot of speed"

Max Verstappen has come within one point of Lewis Hamilton in the battle for the world championship. The Mercedes driver managed to capture the extra World Championship point for the fastest lap, meaning Verstappen is not quite on top yet. That does not matter much to Verstappen, as he knows there is still a long way to go before the final Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi.

"I don't think it was dominant today, Lewis followed me pretty well," Verstappen told Sky Sports after taking his eleventh win in Formula One. Mercedes should be anything but underestimated according to the Dutchman. "The fact that Lewis manages to drive from P9 to second place shows once again that there is a lot of speed in their car."

Verstappen happy with Red Bull

Whereas Red Bull were a little off in terms of strategy in Bahrain, that was not the case in Imola this weekend. Verstappen couldn't have wished for anything better. "I think we did everything right in these conditions. We made the right choices, also with the tyres and on top of that we stayed out of trouble," he explained.

The next two Grands Prix take place in Portugal and Spain. The next two weeks will be spent preparing for them."There are no guarantees and we have to work hard to improve, they (Mercedes, ed.) are very close. I'm looking forward to how we're going to perform there. We are going to see what we can do there. This is a good start to the year," Verstappen said.