Verstappen: I think I stopped one lap too late

It would be a big surprise if Max Verstappen does not win the Driver of the Day (as voted by fans) after his gutsy performance in the British Grand Prix, for once again he was the standout performer on the day despite staying out on intermediates (maybe) a lap too long.

The sensational Dutch teenager took the fight to Mercedes. His race long duel with Nico Rosberg will go down as one of the most memorable of the race at Silverstone.

Despite his relative lack of experience, Verstappen was immensely impressive as he mastered trying conditions early on in the race. Then made Rosberg dig deep to claim second place and then late on the youngster attacked the Mercedes which he realised was in trouble.

Speaking after the race, Verstappen said, "I think I stopped one lap too late, but from there on I just did my own race. Unfortunately Nico got past but then we still had great race, I could still see the top two. In the end I just have to thank Red Bull for giving me such a great car, I think they deserve a lot of credit here."

"I think in general on the intermediates we had pretty good pace. In the beginning I was struggling to have visibility because of the spray, so I was struggling to keep up because I couldn't see where I was going!"

"But once that cleared a bit I could push and I got past Nico on the outside, the car had a lot of grip around the outside too so you can make that move."

"From then on the pace is good but you don't want to switch too early to the slick tyre. I had one guy in front of me had blue flags and I could clearly see slick tyre was faster now and I pitted, maybe one lap too late, but you play it a bit safe."

Verstappen kept ahead of Rosberg when the field pitted for slick tyres under safety car conditions, and proceeded to keep the Mercedes driver at bay despite the German using DRS for several laps.

He kept Rosberg at bay with some tactical blocking into Stowe, prompting Rosberg to complain over the radio before getting by the Dutchman to claim second place, where he stayed until the chequered flag waved to end the race.

Verstappen added, "Lewis was not pulling away too much and from there on Nico was pushing hard, he was giving me a hard time and we had some good fights into Stowe. We were struggling a bit on the straights but he pulled off a great move around the outside and from there I was just doing my own race, there was no pressure from behind because there was a very big gap."

"Then I heard Nico had a problem. Of course I tried to close the gap and get past but once you get into dirty air it's difficult to get even closer."

"I think in general we can be happy, we finished only eight seconds behind or something so in general the car has been working well all weekend. I have to say a thank-you to the team for giving me such a great car for the weekend," concluded Verstappen who lies sixth in the championship.