Verstappen laughs at attack on Norris: 'I had already planned that one'

"Had to fight hard for it of course", Verstappen began opposite Viaplay about his achieved third place. "To be honest, I didn't expect to be able to keep Lando behind me either or have a chance to do anything. It didn't really go well in the race. I couldn't get the tyres under control. There was no balance, I couldn't brake, the car wasn't spinning."

The feeling in that respect was completely different from the rest of the weekend, with the RB20 once again struggling with its race pace: "Yes, we have to see where that went wrong today compared to the past two days. I can't put my finger on that right now."

Then, of course, it was inevitable to talk about the duel with Lando Norris. First of all, the duel in the first corner of the first lap: "Yes, I had already planned that one," Verstappen laughed about that attack.

Verstappen on the battle with Norris

"I'm obviously not going to make it easy for him towards the end of the season. The only problem for me was that I had no front end. Then it was very difficult to brake late because the car was not spinning. Then it's very easy to block. But in the end, it went pretty well."

"We managed to hold him up for a very long time and then he passed, but off the track. That gave him those five seconds, which obviously worked out well. We both went inside the track, but you can't overtake someone outside the track."

Verstappen's third place puts him further ahead of Norris, which Verstappen believes is the most important thing. "We obviously want to win this championship. At the moment, it was a more positive weekend, but in the race, we still came up short. So we still have some work to do."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy