Max Verstappen has been left feeling positive about Red Bull's competitiveness after his victory in the Sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver faced an early challenge from the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the opening lap, but kept his lead and from there enjoyed an unchallenged drive to the win. Verstappen's success proved popular with the Dutch fans in the crowd. "It was great to see [their support], and [we] got a lot of smoke at the end, with all the orange!" Verstappen said after the race. "But it was alright, it was a decent race. We had good pace at the beginning. I think after that we were very closely matched, so it was good. "It was like a sprint should go, quite flat out!"
Verstappen expecting "interesting" battle on Sunday
When asked why he seemed to have much more pace than the Ferrari duo, Verstappen suggested that the fight could still be very close in Sunday's Grand Prix. "It was just the first few laps, of course they were also fighting a little bit, so I had a bit of a gap," the Dutchman explained. "After that, I think we were quite similar in pace. So I do expect tomorrow [that] it's going to be a very interesting battle again. "Of course, the race is always going to be quite a lot longer. It's going to be quite tricky on tyres." Overall, Verstappen has been pleased to see how competitive Red Bull have been so far at their home track. On whether they can have the same level of performance on Sunday, Verstappen said: "We'll find out. "I think the car is good, just a few things to fine tune but, overall, we've been really competitive again this weekend."
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