Verstappen: I tried to put up a fight

Verstappen also was unlucky by the time of the Virtual Safety Car after the Haas of Oliver Bearman expired on track, which meant a guaranteed third place was lost to Mercedes' George Russell.

Verstappen defended with all his skill from Lando Norris at the start, the Briton dropping down the order after coming up short in a fight he should have avoided, but the four-time Formula 1 champion was soon under pressure from Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri, who dispatched Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes and passed the #1 Red Bull RB21 after a thrilling fight.

Later on in the race, Norris caught up with Verstappen and passed him as well, but not before the latter delivered a valiant defense against the dominant McLaren.

Reflecting on his race, Verstappen said: "I gave it everything that I could, but it ended up being a struggle out there. I tried to put up a fight, but in the end it was impossible to keep them behind.

"We got a bit unlucky with the VSC, but of course that is part of racing, and overall the pace wasn't really there. We had nothing to lose, so I was just trying to have a bit of fun on the track, and it was cool to be out there racing.

"The race was unfortunately quite difficult for us in general, and we ultimately lacked pace and struggled with the brakes. Every time that I tried to get close or push a bit more, my tyres would overheat a lot. It was really down to tyre management today, and the track had quite high degradation, which is not our strong suit at the moment.

"We need a bit more performance to make sure we are more competitive, but we were quite far off today," Verstappen concluded.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner acknowledged the dominance of rivals McLaren; he commented: "We gave it everything today, but well done to McLaren; they were in a different league.

"Max put up a staunch defense of his lead and position in the opening stint, but the VSC gave others the opportunity to capitalize on Max's earlier stop and ultimately cost him a podium finish.

"The race showed that we still have a lot of work to do on the car to find that ultimate race pace. We'll take our learnings back to Milton Keynes and come back with everything we have for our 400th race in Imola in a couple of weeks time," Horner concluded.

Red Bull tried to strip Russell of his podium after protesting that he did not slow down under the Yellow flag, but the stewards dismissed their claim, which meant Verstappen had to settle for fourth. He is now 32 points off the lead of the 2025 F1 drivers' championship, which is still in Piastri's grasp.