Verstappen: Fourth GP win 'couldn't have come at a better place'

Max Verstappen was thrilled to score his fourth career Formula 1 race win at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.

Not only was it Red Bull's home race, it was also packed with legions of Verstappen fans decked out in orange colours to cheer their man home. After his first lap retirement in 2017, things could not have been more different for him this time around.

"Of course it's amazing to win with Red Bull at the Red Bull Ring," he said afterwards. "So many Dutch fans around here, it's incredible.

"I don't think I could have chosen a better Grand Prix to do it!" he said. "It was also very unexpected and that makes it even better."

A calm and mature race from the 20-year-old made victory look easy, when in fact it had been anything but. He found himself in a fierce battle with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen for third place on the opening lap.

"I just tried to do my best race possible. If that was going to be first, second third - it's not in your hands. I felt in control because I was just trying to do the best I could with the car I had.

"They told me - and also for myself - to always be calm. It always works better.

"It was tougher than maybe it looked like, because I just had to be on top of my tyres," he said. "I tried to do my lap times but I knew Kimi was two or three tenths faster at one point. Then traffic was also coming in so I was trying not to lose too much time.

"It was actually really tricky to choose your position," he said. 'Kimi was pushing Lewis and he had a little wobble in six and I just went for the gap. There was a little brush."

The defining moment of the race came when Valtteri Bottas retired and triggered a Virtual Safety Car. Red Bull reacted immediately to call in both drivers for a change to soft compound tyres.

"The team did an amazing job to call us in during the VSC," he told Sky Sports F1. "It made my race."

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The early stap did mean that he had to work hard not to wear out the tyres for the remainder of the race. Other drivers including his own team mate Daniel Ricciardo were forced to make an unscheduled stop during the afternoon - but Verstappen didn't.

"I was just driving around the blisters," he said. "They were starting to open up, but I was just managing it especially in the fast corners."

Verstappen did start to come under pressure from Raikkonen, but was able to cover off the threat from the Ferrari.

"It was very hard to manage the tyres," he admitted. "We really had to look after them. There was a lot of blistering. We managed to hang on until the end."

His victory in Sunday's race, together with Valtteri Bottas' retirement, means that Verstappen has now moved up to fifth place in the drivers championship ahead of the Mercedes driver.

"It was always the aim, to have good results," he said. "Initially it wasn't happening, but we never gave up and we're on a good run now.

"I needed to catch up with the points, so today was definitely a very good day for me," he said. "I hope we can continue with this.

"We'll see. I think after Silverstone we start to go into a few tracks - especially Hungary - that's a track where we should aim for. We never give up!"

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