WATCH: Max Verstappen delivers rare Lewis Hamilton praise after winning his 50th F1 race - “It’s still rookie numbers compared to him”

Three-time world champion Max Verstappen claimed that his stats are still 'rookie numbers' in comparison to Lewis Hamilton after winning his 50th race on Sunday at the US Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver encountered a late challenge from the seven-time world champion. The former was nursing a break issue which hampered his progress and proved to be a roadblock in extending the gap over his rivals on track.

But Max Verstappen was able to finish around two seconds ahead of Hamilton at the chequered flag to notch his 15th win of the season and the 50th of his career.

In the post-race press conference, Max Verstappen jokingly claimed that his numbers are still pretty small in comparison to his rival's. He said:

"Yeah, of course, it's a great number, it's still rookie numbers compared to Lewis. Yeah no it's a great number and I'm very happy and proud with it but let's try to win a few more."

Hamilton, along with Charles Leclerc, was eventually disqualified from the USGP for a technical infringement.

Max Verstappen analyzes his race win at the US Grand Prix

Max Verstappen stated that the lead he had over the chasing pack was just about 'OK'. He got disturbed by the dirty air of the backmarkers in the final few laps, which allowed Hamilton to close the gap.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the world champion said:

"Once I was in the lead, I think the gap was OK. But with a few laps ago there were some backmarkers and my tires were not feeling that great. The hard tyre was not very good today [Sunday]. But I think the gap was just big enough and not too many laps left."

He also spoke about his race-long issue of brakes and how it cost him throughout the 56 laps and added:

"We changed the brakes after yesterday [Saturday] and it was not good. I had no good feeling under braking and I couldn't really get on top of it for the whole race, so this is something we need to understand. Of course, around here when you are not very confident under braking, you just don't have the nice feeling under braking when you come off it.

"It can cost you quite a bit of lap time and it was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be. I normally never really struggle with braking so far in my F1 career, but it was definitely a bit of a problem."

It will be fascinating to see if we get to hear more about the break issue from the team ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend.