Verstappen confident Red Bull 'can fight' with RB19 after dominant Bahrain win

Max Verstappen has hailed the dominant start to the season from Red Bull, after they finished 38 seconds ahead of nearest challenger Fernando Alonso.

It was the first win for Red Bull at Bahrain for 10 years, with the Dutchman confident that the team "can fight" with their package after suffering with setbacks throughout the weekend.

"I think we have a good race package. It will depend race-to-race, but we can definitely fight with this," said Verstappen after the race.

"Also a big thank you to the team over the winter, they've done it again to give us such a quick race car again."

Verstappen also faced problems during the race with his gearbox, however he confirmed that it was "nothing big" after changing settings with help from his engineer.

He explained: "Nothing big, just little little things you always want to fine tune so I think they're quite easy to get on top of."

Verstappen: All about managing the gap from start

The Dutchman was able to pull a gap from pole at the start of the race and manage his tyres to the end of the race.

"We had a very good first stint where I basically made my gap and from there it was all about just looking after the tyres, because you never really know what's going to happen later on in the race," he added.

"So we just wanted to make sure that we had the right tyres and in good condition as well. I was very happy to finally also win in Bahrain."