Verstappen: Gasly showed his strength in Brazil

Max Verstappen hailed Pierre Gasly's podium finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix, saying his former Red Bull colleague showed his true talents at Interlagos.

Gasly was demoted to Toro Rosso after 12 races alongside Verstappen where he never looked likely to crack the top three.

However, the Frenchman has steadily improved back in the sister car and qualified seventh in Sao Paulo – elevated to sixth on the grid by Charles Leclerc's penalty.

He maintained position well, and was in the perfect spot to benefit when late-race bedlam saw Valtteri Bottas retire, then Leclerc collided with Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton and Alexander Albon tangled.

It opened the door for Gasly to come home second, his first podium finish in F1, behind race-winner Verstappen.

The Dutchman said: "How I rate Pierre's podium? Incredible.

"Of course, he anyway already had a great race. I think you were best of the rest, right? That's already a good result and then yeah, you just stay out of trouble and other people, of course, make mistakes and you profit from that.

"I think it's great to see Pierre up here. Now it's also the second podium for Toro Rosso already this year, so I think they are very happy with this, and yeah, like I said, I'm very happy to see Pierre up on the podium.

"I always knew he was a very quick driver. I think this year in the beginning maybe didn't work out the way it should but, as you can see, I think Pierre is very strong and, at Toro Rosso again, he regrouped and he had already before this race a lot of good results. So, this is even, I think, a bigger motivation."