Max Verstappen was delighted with third on the grid despite just missing out on the front row for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman finished just 0.015s behind the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas around the longest lap of the year at Spa-Francorchamps after a stellar final lap in Q3, a lap which he needed to jump former teammate Daniel Ricciardo as the Renault rockets down the straights.
More pleasingly, the gap to Lewis Hamilton on pole, while still sizeable, was also less than at previous races, so there's so surprise Max was satisfied with his day's work.
"I think for us overall it’s been a very positive weekend so far," Verstappen said post-session. "We came here and we thought it was going to be very tricky for us.
"Actually to be P3 and that close to Valtteri… of course, we’re still half a second off to Lewis, but I think overall I can be very pleased with that.
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"The lap was decent. I might have run out of energy a little bit but it is distributed around the whole lap," he explained.
"So it’s probably the fastest way of getting the lap time, but very pleased, good day and a lot of opportunities for tomorrow."
And looking ahead to the race, Verstappen is turning to Spa to play some of its party tricks if he wants a chance of victory.
"If you look at the lap time difference with Lewis I don’t think we can suddenly in the race start to fight him, but around here you never know," he said.
"With the weather as well, I hope that will come into play. It makes it all a bit more difficult for everyone and it’s a bit more fun as well. And especially on this track, if there is a bit of weather around it’s a lot of fun!"
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was also upbeat about his team's performance, with Alex Albon enjoying another Saturday in fifth.
“We were so close to the front row. It was a good performance for the two drivers today. Mercedes have that advantage in qualifying, we know that. In the race I hope we can give them a tough time," he told Sky Sports.
“We were only a hundredth of a second behind Bottas, so Verstappen was a bit frustrated. It's so close. I think Alex has done a good job this weekend so far. Hopefully, we can have a strong race tomorrow."
Assessing the competition though, Horner notes the different philosophies taken by those around them amid the uncertain weather forecast.
"We don't know what it will do again. We can see Mercedes have a lot of downforce because they are expecting rain tomorrow, and Daniel has low wing so it will be interesting to see how he goes up the hill," the Briton concluded.
