Max Verstappen hopes his solid drive to third at the Spanish GP can be the springboard to change his fortunes following a tough start to 2018.
The Dutchman has been under fire for much of the year following three high profile incidents with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the three-race period from Bahrain to Baku.
In Barcelona though, site of his first Formula 1 win, he kept his head, emerging unscathed from just clipping the back of Lance Stroll’s Williams at the VSC restart to fend off Vettel and claim his first podium of the year.
“It feels nice to be on the podium and nice to have a good clean race so yeah, hopefully we can work from here and score a lot of good results,” Verstappen said.
His boss Christian Horner agreed, adding: “It is good to get both cars to the finish, we did everything we could strategically. Max did a great job fending off Sebastian, albeit with a wounded car.
“For Max to stand on the podium for the first time this season, it will really settle him and get him on his way.
“We are looking forward to the next race in Monaco. Both drivers have gone round well there so that is an opportunity for us.”
Ricciardo wasn’t so pleased, however, admitting he was struggling for consistency in his RB14 throughout the race, as was highlighted by a spin at the Turn 10 hairpin during the VSC period.
“It was just a bit tricky to drive. It was fast when you were able to put it all together but easy to make mistakes. It was a bit on a knife-edge,” said the Australian.
“If you got lucky, you could put in a blistering lap but probably 1 out of 5 I could make it happen and the other four laps I was sliding and struggling to stay on.”
