Verstappen wants Red Bull to hunt down Mercedes

Max Verstappen has targeted eating into Mercedes' and Lewis Hamilton's championship leads over the second half of the 2019 season, with Red Bull now understanding the RB15 better than before.

Red Bull started the season sluggishly, with Verstappen taking their sole two podium finishes in the first eight races as new team-mate Pierre Gasly struggled to get up to speed.

However, a new front wing and Honda pushing the boundaries helped Verstappen to victory in Austria and he would have likely finished second at Silverstone last time out if not for Sebastian Vettel crashing into him.

Gasly also matched his best F1 result in that race by taking fourth place and Verstappen says Red Bull are now in position to take on the Silver Arrows.

Asked what Red Bull's target for the remainder of 2019 was, Verstappen said: "Closing the gap to Mercedes. That is the biggest one I think. We want to win so that is our biggest challenge ahead, to try to close that gap.

"Further than I would like. We are getting closer but it is still not good enough. We know that. We are working hard to try to close it.

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"At the end of the day second is always better than third, but we are here to win. Of course we want to be in front of Ferrari, but we want to be there with Mercedes.

"This year at the moment we are trying to get the most out of the engine as well and learn from what we did wrong at the beginning of the season, or not as good compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. Hopefully next year we can fight for the wins all the time."

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