Max Verstappen described his second place at the Austrian Grand Prix as a ‘great feeling’ after managing to complete a one-stop strategy.
The youngest Grand Prix winner benefited from the Mercedes last lap collision to move ahead of Nico Rosberg, who picked up damage from his accident with teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen also managed to hold off the challenge from Kimi Raikkonen in the closing laps, taking Red Bull’s first podium at their home race.
“It was a great start, also good first laps, straight away I could see the pace was there on the car,” Verstappen explained.
“So I just moved up to the front and once I cleared some guys, I just tried to go into my own rhythm. The Mercedes are still a bit too quick, but everything was going quite well.”
The Dutch driver pitted on lap 25 for a set of soft compound tyres, providing good tyre management to complete a one-stop strategy.
Verstappen admitted he had already settled for third in the final stages, but said moving up to second was a nice bonus.
“I did a long stint on the soft tyre,” he added. “The last ten laps, which included some traffic, made it very hard. I could see Kimi behind me catching up a lot.
“In the end, to come up second with what happened in the last lap is of course a bonus. Also to finish here in second as a Red Bull driver at the Red Bull Ring is just a great feeling.”
