Versta🔜ppen was forced to start from the back after taking an eℱntirely new power unit for this weekend’s race.

A💮fter making his way through the field up to seventh, Verstappen was one of the first drivers to gamble f🐷or intermediates when it rained, elevating him up the order to finish second.

Giꦛven that Mer💞cedes has enjoyed a significant performance advantage at Monza and Sochi, Verstappen trails Lewis Hamilton by just two points with seven rounds remaining.

“Today was like a victory for us, to go from 20th on the grid to P2, if you’d have offered that before the weekend I think we’d have bitten your arm off, so to have achieved that, to com𓂃e away from two Mercedes strongholds with only a two-point deficit in the driver championship is hugely encouraging, seven to gꦬo, it’s all to play for,” Horner said after the race.

Horner says Vers👍tappen exceeded expectations with P5 the “absolute optimum” in Red Bull’s pre-race analysis.

“Pre-race probably P5 would have been the absolute optimum, so to have done that would have been optimum, so to come away with P2, as obviously a few laps before the end iꦏt looked like probably P6, so Max got the caꦅll right to go onto the inters and it worked out well for him, to get P2 and the engine penalty done is more than we could have hoped for going into the window,” he added.