Marko not unhappy after Verstappen 'won' second place

Helmut Marko is disappointed with the result in his home country, but says Max Verstappen's second place is a victory, not a defeat. Red Bull Racing did not have it easy in Austria.

Red Bull had been the better team throughout the Grand Prix weekend in Spielberg. Verstappen had taken pole and managed to cash in on it during the sprint race on Saturday. On Sunday, however, things quickly went wrong and Ferrari suddenly appeared to have the better performance.

''Our performance at the Red Bull Ring was very strong, but on Sunday the first three sets of tyres didn't work for Max. It was only with the fourth set of tyres that he was as fast as on Friday and Saturday,'' Marko states in his column for the Kronen Zeitung. The RB18 was particularly troubled by wear and tear, which quickly put Verstappen into survival mode.

At Red Bull, it's not yet clear why Sunday's performance was so disappointing, but Marko has his suspicions. "We think the tyre problem is related to the track temperature or tyre pressure. The temperature on Sunday was the highest of the weekend and the rain during the night may have also played a role.''

However, the Red Bull advisor says that one has to be satisfied with second place after the serious tyre problems. According to Marko, it was a winning second place because Verstappen was able to do damage control despite the problems. In a fortnight the team must repair the damage at the French Grand Prix.