Verstappen: I don’t expect it to be like that every weekend

The 2021 Formula 1 Champion was driving in his own parallel universe all weekend long, fastest in qualifying by over six tenths from the Carlos Sainz behind him, while he went on to blitz the field on Sunday's race, starting 14th and winning by over 17 seconds from teammate Sergio Perez.

"I think if you look at the whole weekend, yes, the car has been incredible from FP1," Verstappen told F1's official website. "I don’t think we expected it to be like this but sometimes it’s nice when things positively surprise you, and it’s been really enjoyable to drive the car around here this year.

"I don’t expect it to be like that every single race weekend… just because of the track layout, more downforce on the car to get round, less straights as well. So definitely, it will be closer, yes.

"But we of course again made a bigger gap which is of course very nice, but we know that we have to score points every single weekend," he said.

Verstappen reflected on his race saying: "The hardest bit was Lap 1 to stay out of trouble, because it was very hectic in front of me and I just really didn’t want to be involved, but yes, we came through quite well, then you know it calmed down with the Safety Car, and basically from there it was literally trying to overtake a car every lap.

"And once I realised I was third, I could see we can win this race," the Dutchman revealed.

Sergio Perez struggled to get anywhere close to his teammate's imperious form all weekend, and had a bad start to his race, but after that, making good use of the RB18's superior speed was able to come second, making it a one two for Red Bull who maximized their points as Verstappen took the extra point for he fastest lap.

Perez said: "It didn’t start well, my weekend – really bad start; I struggled massively – but yes luckily we managed to survive and it’s a great team result obviously, always welcome a one-two for the team.

"It boosts everyone, everyone’s working so hard so it’s always a great result. But on the other hand, I’m aware of the gap to Max, so something we have to understand as a team to make sure we are able to come back stronger for Zandvoort," he explained.

"Certainly, the car has become better from the beginning of the season but yes, certainly I am not as comfortable as I was at the beginning of the season, so it’s something that I need to work on my side to make sure we are able to get the maximum out of the car.

"I really hope that from this weekend we run the cars slightly different so we are able to spot some differences that can bring some performance from our side," The Mexican concluded.