Red Bull driver Max Verstappen believes his team is closing the gap to Formula 1 championship top guns Mercedes.
The teenager finished on the podium behind the two Mercedes drivers at Silverstone on Monday morning but was promoted ahead of Nico Rosberg after the German was given a time penalty for illegal use of his radio.
"I felt like I had great pace today so once the track dried up I just tried to have a go," Dutchman Verstappen said. "In the beginning I had a lot of spray so it was hard to see where I was going, especially in the first sector. Once I passed Nico I felt like I was closing on Lewis [Hamilton] but then he pitted for slicks. We maybe stayed out one lap too long but in the end the race was great and the car was working really well.
"I had a great battle again with Nico afterwards but as it dried the Mercedes just had too much speed on the straights. I tried to keep up and there was no pressure from behind so I just concentrated on doing my own race. I had a few moments in Turn 1 which was a bit tricky so I had to be careful there but I hear a few others also struggled. The move on the outside at Becketts was fun, he was finding the inside so I thought let's try the outside. It
was a risky move for sure. The car had the grip and I had the feeling so it worked well. There's a bit of run off there anyway so I had room if it went wrong. In the end we only finished roughly eight seconds behind so I think that is really positive going forwards and shows we are closing the gap."
Team Principal Christian Horner echoed the thoughts of his young charger, claiming a third and fourth place finish for his two cars and a big success.
