Verstappen knows: 'I wouldn't have been able to keep Hamilton at bay even then'.

Looking back on his race in Portugal, Verstappen says he is relatively satisfied with the result, as he says he did not have the pace to consistently beat the Mercedes.

"There was not really a point where I thought, 'OK, we have the pace to overtake [Hamilton]'," Verstappen began in conversation with Sky Sports. "We still tried to take the fastest lap, but it was taken away because of track limits. It is what it is."

In addition, Verstappen knows that even if he had started from pole, Hamilton's Mercedes would have overtaken him even then: "When Lewis passed Valtteri, he would have come in front of me anyway, so I don't know if I could have kept him behind me."

New round, new opportunities

"I'm looking forward to the next weekend," Verstappen continued. "I haven't really been able to enjoy this weekend because of the low grip here. Barcelona is good, it's a nice circuit for an F1 car and we will see more of how the teams have progressed."