A relieved Max Verstappen has detailed the positives from the Belgian Grand Prix that he fears will leave him “counting the cost” in the F1 standings.

Verstappen went into the Spa race 76 points clear of Lando Norris in the drivers’ seat and started 11th after being handed a start-stop penalty, with Norris in fourth.

The McLaren driver had a poor opening lap and spent much of the race in heavy traffic, while Verstappen used strategy to overtake Norris and finish fifth, ahead of the Briton in sixth.

This means Verstappen will head into the summer break with a 78-point lead at the top of the championship, with 275 points to Norris’ 197 after finishing fifth for the third time in the last four races.

“The car was too unbalanced in the first few laps, but I was in heavy traffic so that didn’t help,” Verstappen told the media.

“We weren’t faster than the cars around us and were stuck in the DRS train, but as a team I think we maximised our performance.

“Starting from P11, I always knew it would be a damage limitation race, but looking at the championship, it’s still a positive day.

“I extended the lead when I could easily calculate the losses, so in that sense it’s a positive day.

“It’s better to gain points than lose points, and today it could have gone either way because Norris was so close to me.

“At the same time, I was hunting in front of me, and we had two medium guns and one hard gun, but I think today, a harder gun would have been more useful.

“George won the race with just one stop, but I don’t think our tyres were durable enough or strong enough to do that, so there are a few things to analyse, but as a team, we did well.”

Verstappen’s Belgian GP
Four races without a win is Verstappen’s longest win drought since the 2020 Emilia Romagna-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as he detailed the “aggressive” strategy deployed by Red Bull.

“We definitely did the right thing with the strategy, trying to attack a little bit at the start to try to get ahead of a few other cars and make my race a little better,” he said.

“But then we got stuck behind other cars.

“We had an engine penalty that was out of my control, so I just tried to do the best I could. Hopefully there won’t be a penalty at Zandvoort, I can have a normal race weekend.

“If you start in the top five, your race usually looks a little different, but of course, I know that when you look at our pure race performance, we have to do a little better.”