Mekies sees Verstappen 'dreaming of Leclerc's gearbox' tonight

In qualifying, Verstappen finished marginally behind Charles Leclerc in Q3. That was also the case in during the Grand Prix as well, as he failed to get past the Monegasque driver having a higher downforce setup.

"I think Max’s probably going to dream of Charles' gearbox tonight. I think he spent every single lap in Charles' gearbox. It's part of the game, we didn't get much wet running. And obviously we did make quite aggressive choices with the car to try to be in a good place for the heavy rain that somehow came earlier today, but it's part of the game," the Frenchman began to F1 TV.

He continued: "Then after on the dry, I think Max has tried everything to go around Charles, but I don't think there have been very many overtaking on the dry this afternoon, so it was really tough, especially with the car in that configuration. So it's part of the game, we start fourth, finish fourth, still a few points and probably still some work to do to close the gap to McLaren here."

With this result, the Dutchman is now 81 points behind today's winner and championship leader Oscar Piastri in the standings. The season continues next weekend with the Hungarian Grand Prix.