Buoyant Verstappen confident of points from P7

© XPB 

Max Verstappen is confident he can score points starting from seventh place after maximising his qualifying potential at the Austrian Grand Prix.

During a tricky qualifying session which started on a drying track, Verstappen was the only Toro Rosso to make it through to Q3 and will line up P7 for tomorrow's race. After ending the day as the lead Renault-powered car, Verstappen says he is pleased to secure the best result he feels the STR10 was capable of.

"I think the whole weekend has been very good!" Verstappen said. "I think we really maximised the car in qualifying.

"P7 was the maximum. To find three tenths on this track isn’t easy."

And Verstappen believes Toro Rosso has the race pace to capitalise on starting inside the top ten, having dropped away rapidly from a P6 grid slot in the Spanish Grand Prix.

"I think we made some mistakes in Barcelona and we were too conservative on the tyres, so we can push more on them. Afterwards we have improved our race pace. Even in Canada we were quite fast but we couldn’t get past. Now we are in a better starting position for the race."

Click here for the gallery of the Formula Una girls at the Austrian Grand Prix

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