Max Verstappen has highlighted Red Bull’s performance in high-speed corners after he won for the first time in four races in Imola.

The Dutchman broke the Oscar Piastri dominance after a great overtake in lap 1 and then a controlled race from that point on.

Max Verstappen reflects on Red Bull title challenge after Imola win

Heading into the race, Piastri was a clear favourite given his pole position but the early overtake put Verstappen in charge.

The Dutchman’s win came in the same weekend that Red Bull brought upgrades and the reigning World Champion now believes the RB21 has an edge in circuit circuits.

“This track has quite a few high-speed corners, which I think our car likes,” he said. “I also think we took a step forward with the setup of the car, which helps.

“[The next race in] Monaco is, of course, very, very different. So, let’s see how we are going to perform there. Last year was very difficult for us. I don’t expect it to be a lot easier this time around because there’s, of course, a lot of low speed, but we’ll see.

“I mean, it’s just one race on the calendar, where you try to do the best you can. Even after that, there’s a lot of races left, but, of course, you can clearly see that once we go to high-speed tracks and corners, then we are more competitive.”

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Verstappen said that even after he pulled off the daring overtake, he was unsure if he would be able to keep the McLarens behind.

“The initial start wasn’t that amazing, but then Turn 2, luckily, worked out quite well for me,” Verstappen, who was P3 by the time of Turn 2, said. “So I was, of course, happy to be in the lead, but I was still not entirely sure how quick we were going to be because, of course, I was also in the lead in Miami, but we did not have a great pace there.

“So, I just tried to follow my rhythm. I do think the car felt a bit nicer, a bit more controlled to drive now also in the long run, and that helped me, I think, also then look after the tyres probably a bit more than normal. So overall, quite surprising, but, of course, very happy with what we showed today. Just hope that we can, you know, show this kind of performance a bit more often.”

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