Marko: Big satisfaction to overtake Mercedes and pull away

Helmut Marko believes that Red Bull have the best chassis on the grid and that Max Verstappen overtaking Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes early on during the Malaysian Grand Prix gave the energy drinks team a big kick.

Speaking ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Marko told Motorsport Network, "The big satisfaction is to overtake Mercedes and pull away. It shows that the works that we did since our poor start in Melbourne pays off, and the development goes in the right direction. Chassis-wise, for sure we are the best now."

Verstappen scored his second career win in style, controlling the race from the moment he eased past Hamilton on lap four of the race.

But it did not escape Marko that Ferrari fumbled badly, with Sebastian Vettel starting last at Sepang after a turbo problem in Q1 of qualifying and Kimi Raikkonen was pushed off the grid minutes before the start to the race with a similar issue.

"Ferrari had problems, but our race speed was comparable, because in the end Sebastian was on supersoft tyres, and you saw that, when he was catching Ricciardo, he went too close and he ruined his front tyres, so that’s why he had to stop his attack."

One would imagine that Red Bull have the same power unit as the Renault works team, thus the gap between the two teams - in terms of chassis - is enormous as the French team's cars were down in 15th and 16th well over a lap behind the Red Bull's in first and third.

Marko explained, "We’re going in the right direction and getting faster and faster, the car is really good. If everything stays together, then Max or Daniel can achieve a podium, and maybe one or the other can win."

Up until Malaysia Verstappen had a endured a tough season, littered with technical failures, Marko acknowledged, "It was difficult. He was just 19 years old, but I think it was character-building in a hard way. He understood, and he adapted, and he took a different approach, and you can see it."