Max Verstappen says Red Bull “maximised the opportunities” the team had in Sochi, after a “lonely” run to fifth place at the Russian Grand Prix.
The Dutch driver admitted it all came down to the start of the race, where he stormed from seventh to fifth on the long run down to Turn 2.
From there, Verstappen had Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo for company before his team-mate retired with brake issues.
He pulled away as the race progressed but lost ground to the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, proving to be on his own until the race finish.
It could have been a different story for Verstappen, after a water leak gave his mechanics a lot of work to do before the start.
“The start was very important today and ended up being the only action of the race for me,” he explained. “I managed to get past Felipe and Daniel and from there on it was a very lonely race.
“I could see the cars in front of me pulling away and I was pulling away from the cars behind so I just tried to manage the car home.
“After the issues we had this morning luckily nothing upset me or the rhythm during the race so I just had to bring it across the line.
“The mechanics did a really good job sorting the issue in such a small amount of time and giving me a car to complete the race in P5.
“The pace was not so bad in the last stint which is another positive to take away from this tough weekend.
“Towards the end you naturally start to turn things down on the car to be safe. We maximised the opportunities we had so now we can look forward to Barcelona, the upgrades are coming and we can hopefully start to get involved in the fight at the front.”
