Max Verstappen makes his feelings crystal clear about finishing third in the F1 Chinese GP sprint 

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said he would "definitely take" finishing P3 at the end of the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race. The Dutch driver started the race from the front row alongside his long-time rival and Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton but couldn't make any headways at the front of the grid.

After hanging on the coattails of the seven-time F1 world champion's rear wing, momentarily getting into the DRS, and attacking Hamilton for a lap, the four-time F1 world champion suffered from massive degradation of his front tires.

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri ultimately caught him and the Dutchman did not offer much defense when the Aussie rode past him to take P2 on the grid.

In his post-Sprint interview with F1TV, Max Verstappen was relatively pleased with his efforts and the result, saying:

"I tried to give it a go because I had Oscar behind me pushing, so was staying in DRS. Unfortunately, the last eight laps we didn't have the pace of the others so I was trying to survive out there."

"I definitely take P3. It was tough to manage the tires, but it's OK, we will try to do better. In general, we just lack a bit of pace so you have to push harder, and that hurts your tires," he added.

Max Verstappen outperformed in the sprint qualifying session as he was just 0.018 seconds behind the pole position time set by Lewis Hamilton.

Max Verstappen analyzes his P3 finish in the Sprint in China

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said that it was difficult for him to manage his tyres which was evident by the drop-off in performance in the final few laps as he was fending off the challenge from George Russell and Charles Leclerc behind.

Speaking with ViaPlay, the Dutchman reflected on the RB21's pace in China.

"Yeah, nothing unexpected [lack of pace]. It's not what you want, but it's the reality. The entire race, a lot of managing the tires, you could see in the lap times how much slower we were in the end," he said.

"It's just really difficult. I could drive my own pace the entire race [without managing tires] but then you'll immediately fall off after three or four laps. I tried, but it's just difficult at this moment," Verstappen added.

Despite a relatively modest P3 finish in the sprint, it was a good haul of points for Max Verstappen as he closed the gap to McLaren driver and championship leader Lando Norris in the driver standings.

The reigning four-time F1 world champion finds himself just two points behind the Brit after the latter finished in P8 and could only manage one point in the Sprint.