The Austrian Grand Prix witnessed Max Verstappen taking home the win after a rather straightforward race, having led the pack from start to finish. Such was the dominance that the Dutchman portrayed against defending champions, Mercedes.

However, despite the powerful show at the Red Bull Ring, Verstappen reckoned that his race wasn’t as easy as it looked. Apparently, the fact that he was clearly the favorite going into the weekend only piled up more pressure on the championship leader.

What did Max Verstappen say?

As reported by Marca, the Red Bull driver opened up about why his second weekend in Austria was tougher than it looked.

“Incredible job by everyone to deliver something like this. Of course, when you go into the weekend everybody sees you as the favourite, but it’s never easy to actually always deliver what we did today,” he said. (Translated via Google Translate)

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“A great effort by the whole team and also by Honda. I think the whole package these two weeks, especially here, has been incredible.”

At the start of the race, all Verstappen had to do was defend against Lando Norris until turn 4; and that was all the action he experienced. As the Dutchman continued to pull away with ease, the Briton held off the Mercedes drivers, and the gap between the title rivals blew up.

The car was on rails: Verstappen

The 23-year-old, who recently made it into F1’s record books as the youngest driver to 50 podiums, claimed that he was amazed by the pace his Red Bull managed to garner.

“Incredible to be honest,” he said. “The car was on rails. I mean on every tyre set we put on, it was really enjoyable to drive. And yes, pretty insane. I’m a bit amazed myself how today went. I didn’t expect it to be like this.”

The 2021 season’s first triple-header went to Verstappen, who managed to win all three of them – France, Styria, and Austria. Now, the focus shifts onto Silverstone, and the Dutchman will be keen on putting an end to Hamilton’s reign at his home circuit.

So, can Verstappen silence the British crowd by leading throughout the weekend against his title rival? Well, we’ll know soon enough.

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