Max Verstappen admits he was as surprised as anyone by how quickly he fought through the field at the start of the Russian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Sunday, produced one of the greatest drives to date as he went from P19 after various penalties to P5 in the first eight laps.

“Before the race for sure not, absolutely not," he told Sky Sports on whether he thought that was possible.

“It seemed like the tyres had good grip straight away and it made the turning a bit better. I think we also did a good compromise with the wing and the car had a lot of grip.”

Such was his speed on the more durable Soft tyre, the Red Bull driver would take the lead when the Mercedes' and Ferrari's pitted and would hold P1 for the most laps of any driver during the race.

Unfortunately, hopes of a charge over the final 10 laps didn't materialise as the Ultrasoft rubber didn't have the pace expected.

Even so... “[I'm] very pleased with it,” he said of his result. “The goal was always to be P5 but the way in which we did it today I can be very pleased with that.”

Despite being a bogey track, Red Bull enjoyed good pace all weekend in Sochi and naturally based on the performance Verstappen produced many wondered what could have been without the grid drop.

“It is difficult to say but because we were starting at the back we could choose our tyres so it is a bit difficult to say if we’d qualified fifth or sixth," Max said. “But yeah, we would have been in the fight.”

What was also impressive was the large gap the four-time F1 race winner pulled over teammate Daniel Ricciardo, crossing the finish line 50 seconds ahead of the Australian.

“I just lost out on the first lap. To be honest I can’t really remember what happened,” the 'Honey Badger' said.

“The first lap wasn’t going that great and then I broke the front wing [on debris after Turn 10]. That was a kind of double whammy on the first lap that really shaped the race. A bit lonely at the end."

Ricciardo would come home to finish P6.