Max Verstappen admitted that Hungarian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton was “a bit faster” and that he had no regrets as he finished second at the Hungaroring.
The Dutchman secured his first pole position of his career on Saturday and led for the majority of the race before being overtaken by the Mercedes AMG Motorsport of Hamilton with three laps to go.
Verstappen did set the fastest lap of the race to get the bonus point and was pleased with the gap he had over the Scuderia Ferrari’s.
“We gave it our all but Lewis was clearly a bit faster than us today.
“It was nice to see that we had such a big gap to the others though and second is still a good result.
“It wasn’t our day in terms of pace but overall it was a good weekend and getting pole position was a great step.
“Of course, when you start at the front you want to win but you also have to be realistic and to finish second with the fastest lap was the most that we could do.”
Hamilton pitted for fresh medium tyres and closed rapidly on the Red Bull Racing and Verstappen holds his hands up and admits there was not a lot he could do to stop the British driver getting through.
“I tried to keep Lewis behind when we were on the same tyres but because of the gap to third, he had the option to do a second stop which worked out for him.
“I was trying to survive out front and push on my tyres but when he was closing in by one or two seconds per lap there wasn’t much I could do.
“He closed so quickly on the fresh tyres that I wasn’t surprised he managed to get past.”
A pitstop in the closing laps helped secure the bonus points for fastest lap and Verstappen says he has “no regrets” as Formula 1 heads for its summer break.
“We then pitted to get the fastest lap, which is one extra point, and I’m of course happy to get that.
“No regrets and we tried everything we could.
“It was a good weekend for us and I go into the break with a good feeling as we’re getting closer all the time.”
