Max Verstappen coy about future chances after shock win

70th Anniversary Grand Prix

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Verstappen coy about future chances after shock win

Verstappen praises Red Bull for race-winning performance, but remains reserved about championship aspirations

Ewan Gale

Monday 10 August 2020 16:18 Updated: 17:10

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen remained coy about the chances of further success in 2020 after taking an unexpected victory at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Verstappen benefited from his RB16 allowing him to better manage the Pirelli tyres the either of the Mercedes drivers.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas suffered with blistering from as early as lap three.

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Despite becoming the first non-Mercedes driver to take victory in 2020, Verstappen was was unsure of his chances going forward, explaining future success could rely on Pirelli being less conservative in its tyre compound selection.

Verstappen said: "I think that to fully close that gap will be very hard.

"I think today we were just very good on tyres and then, of course, you can push a lot harder on them, especially when we go back to conservative tyres everywhere, because basically most of the tracks we go to we are just doing a one-stop.

"I think it will be a bit harder for us because then nobody really has blistering that severe, and you don’t need to manage as much as we did today.

"We will see. Like I’ve said before, let’s just enjoy today and then we’ll see again in Barcelona where we are."

Early in the race, Verstappen had been keen to pile the pressure on Hamilton and Bottas, sensing the tyre problems of Mercedes and wanting to further complicate his rivals day.

Instructed to back off and cool his own tyres, the Ductchman replied on the radio "no, no, no, I’m not going to drive like grandma.”

Explaining his comments, he added: "Yeah, we so far didn’t have the opportunity in all the races to push them, and I could see we were pushing them.

"I tried to put the pressure on, they had to pit and from there onwards I could do my pace and basically build that advantage to the end."

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