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Max Verstappen

Verstappen sounds Red Bull alarm after British GP warning

Second place was rescued for Max Verstappen in the British Grand Prix - but he feels Red Bull received a wake-up call.

Verstappen wet race Silverstone
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Max Verstappen insists Red Bull does not have the fastest car in F1 anymore and that the team has "work to do" following the British Grand Prix.

Qualifying fourth, Verstappen finished second at Silverstone, but this was mainly down to the retirement of George Russell and the faux pas of McLaren in putting Lando Norris on soft tyres at the switch back from intermediate rubber.

Verstappen was put on hards by Red Bull at the final pit-stop, which did not degrade as severely, allowing the world champion to rescue a podium finish after initially fearing he could fall as low as fifth or sixth in the early stages.

Despite passing Norris late on, Verstappen conceded that the RB20 is no longer the fastest machine on the grid.

"If you look at an average stint, the others were much faster and drove away," Verstappen told Viaplay. 

"McLaren only chose the wrong tyre, because if Norris was on the mediums, I would have had no chance. 

"There is work to be done because we are not the fastest at the moment."

Verstappen's strategy calls

Despite the pace struggles on what was a relatively quiet weekend for the team at Silverstone, Verstappen felt the strategy calls made excelled and allowed the team to fight for the win late on, Verstappen finishing 1.4s behind race-winner Lewis Hamilton.

"We made the right choices, I called for us to go to inters so that was good, but we were too slow, the tyres got hot but we made the right decision in going to slicks again," he said.

"The team put the hard tyre on and that was good for me. Had I been on softs, I think I would have fallen even further back. 

"To end up second with an overly slow car and make the right decisions, that was the maximum."

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