Verstappen 'lucky' to take podium spot

Max Verstapen was "lucky" to get his first podium of 2018 at the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted, after the Dutchman damaged his front wing in yet another on-track collision. Verstappen clipped the slow-moving Williams of Lance Stroll in Barcelona, but it did not stop him from holding off Sebastian Vettel for third place.

Mistakes have cost Verstappen big so far this year and he was under the microscope after a crash with Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo last time out in Azerbaijan.

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But the Dutchman delivered a mature reminder of his talents to bank big points by comfortably keeping the Ferrari of Vettel behind him, despite the German pitting for fresher tyres, and Horner believes it can act as a launch-pad for Verstappen's season.

"We were lucky to get away that the damage was not more," Horner told Sky Sports.

"It is good to get both cars to the finish, we did everything we could strategically. Max did a great job fending off Sebastian, albeit with a wounded car.

"For Max to stand on the podium for the first time this season, it will really settle him and get him on his way."

Verstappen claimed that the damage did not hamper his progress too much and said his eagerness to get going at the end of the VSC was behind the collision with Stroll.

"It feels nice to be on the podium and nice to have a good clean race so yeah, hopefully we can work from here and score a lot of good results," Verstappen said.

"Luckily it hit the outside bit of the wing, so I could continue and just have a little bit more understeer in the high-speed corners but I managed to sort that with some tools so it was okay.

"I kept going and I felt a bit more understeer in turns 3 and 9 and may be braking a bit deeper into the hairpins. But it was not too bad to be honest, I just had some tools and all good. I don’t think it affected me too much.

"I was trying to be as close as I could to be on the positive side, but I was quite close behind Stroll. I felt that he braked a bit, I was really close, so I just clipped him."