Autosportfoto

Verstappen attributes podiums to new set up confidence

Max Verstappen has attributed his return to form in the Malaysian Grand Prix and Japanese Grand Prix to an increasing confidence that comes with setting up his Red Bull RB12.

Verstappen recorded his first F1 podium since July's German Grand Prix with a run to second place in Sepang before following it up with an identical result in Suzuka a week later.

Hauling him back into the battle for fourth overall alongside Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, Verstappen says experience alone has played its part in getting the car to his liking.

"In the last few races I've been doing more of my own thing because you start to understand more of the car and which way you want to work to. Even there you're experiencing new stuff, definitely you're heading into the direction you want.

"When I first jumped in I took all the settings of Daniel of course - brake pedal, throttle pedal, steering wheel - all these kinds of settings, at one point you start to change them a bit to your liking, I think that's what I'm doing at the moment."

Describing his battling drive to second place in Japan as one of his best F1 performances yet, the young Dutchman also dismissed the brief furore that emerged when Mercedes launched - and then dropped - a protest to argue against his robust defence of position against Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap of the race.

"I don't think about It," he responded. "I just do my race and from there on I'm just fighting for position so I think a lot of people would do the same.

"I think it's one of my best drives, I got a clean start and from there you can do your own race. Lately I haven't had that so I think it was definitely in the top three of my best races. Of course, my best one for the moment will always be Barcelona because of the victory. I felt very happy with the performance in general over the whole weekend as well, we were always up there and I was very happy with the ending." 

Zdroj: crash.net