Verstappen 🗹started the race from🧸 20th after taking a fresh power unit for this weekend’s race.

The Dutchman cut his way through, running ♚several seconds behind title rival Lewis Hamilton at the mid﷽way point before being stuck in traffic after the pit stop phase.

Verstappen was running in seventh when 😼he made a timely call to intermediate tyres, allowing him to get ahead of the likes of Lando Norri𒁏s, Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

“I think I’ve had a few but this one definitely came a little bit out of nowhere towards the end,” Verstappen said. “We made the right callꦚ to go from the slicks to the inters. The team kept asking me ‘how are the conditions, what do you want to do?’. At one point it was so tricky to drive. I said ‘OK, right, let’s box now, we go for it’ and that was the right call.

“Of course, super pleased to be second from last. If somebody would have told me ꦛthat I would be second here this morning I definitely wouldn’t have believed that.”

The 23-year-old is adamant he’d have still stopped for intermediates when he did if he was ru🅰nning higher than seventh.

“I would hav𝓡e preferred to be higher up,” Verstappen expl🧸ained. “We still probably would have made the same call because you’re all over the place and when you don’t have grip at one point, you have to box. It wouldn’t have made a big difference.”

Verstappen doubts he’d 🌟have finished higher than second had he qualified at the front.

“Realistically, I think even if we would have started up front, 🍨in the top three, four, this is maybe still the best we could have done,” Verstappen added. “We didn’t really lose out and of course, it’s a big bonus taking a new engine and starting from last. I am looking forward to the upcoming races.”