Verstappen: Third place is the maximum the team can achieve for the moment

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was happy with securing third on the grid for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, saying that third is the best the team can achieve for the time being.

As well as qualifying on the second row behind the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, Verstappen finished third to the two cars in each of the three practice sessions over the weekend.

Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen explained how he felt comfortable in the car over the long runs during the practice sessions and that he was hopeful of being able to put pressure on the two cars ahead during the race.

The Dutch driver also spoke on the performance of the team with the third place, affirming that it is the best result that can be achieved at the moment and that the team should be proud that it is able to extract the maximum performance that is available.

"It's the maximum we can do at the moment," Verstappen said.

"I think overall, the whole weekend we have been P3 so [I'm] pretty happy with that. I just hope we will be closer in the race which, yesterday in the long runs it didn't seem too bad. Of course, tomorrow is a different day so we will have to see.

"I felt happy in the car [during practice], I just hope I can apply a bit of pressure. I know that it is very hard to overtake around here but we are going to do everything we can to be close to them and try to make it a bit difficult."