Max Verstappen was delighted to finish fourth at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, with the Scuderia Toro Rosso making one set of the Pirelli Soft tyre last for a long stint.
The Dutch teenager felt it was his most complete race of his rookie season so far, feeling that neither he nor his team made any errors, and this was rewarded with his equal-best finish of the season.
“I really enjoyed today’s race!” exclaimed Verstappen. “A fourth position is a great result, definitely the best we could do today, and I’m just really, really happy!
“There were some very good battles out on track and I’d say this was the most complete race of the season so far, everything worked out as it should have: I made no mistakes and the team did a perfect job with the strategy, making all the right calls.
“It was difficult to know when to make the move on to slick tyres, because you never want to go too early and lose time, so you just try and wait and see if someone else does it… When I heard over the radio that another car was on slicks and not doing too bad, I said okay, now we go.
“Once on the Softs, I didn’t risk much as I knew I had to look after the tyres and we managed to get to the end in a strong way. I’m delighted with today and I’d like to thank the team for all the efforts this weekend.”
