Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen proud of points and consistency

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Max Verstappen says he exceeded his own expectations during his debut F1 season in 2015.

The Toro Rosso rookie scored 49 points in his first year racing in Formula One, finishing 12th in the drivers' championship. The highlights were a pair of fourth-place finishes in Hungary and the United States, with a run of six consecutive races in the top ten coming to an end at the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Asked if he exceeded his own expectations, Verstappen replied: "I think so, a little bit.

"I mean, I scored more points than I expected, so in that respect it's definitely been better than I thought at the start of the year. I'm very happy with that! I'd say I've also been very consistent throughout the year, something that's not always easy to achieve during a rookie year."

And Verstappen says having a team-mate who he was closely matched with in Carlos Sainz helped him to achieve some strong results this year.

"I've had many good moments, which also makes me very happy! But if I have to choose one, I think Austin was my best race – very complete, quick and clean moves, and finished in P4. I think that in general I've learned a lot this year, gained plenty of experience and got much more knowledge about the car, the circuits... About Formula 1 in general.

"What has also been good is to have someone like Carlos as a team-mate. He's always pushing you and that's what I like, you need someone next to you who is pushing you hard to get the most out of you on track."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.