After qualifying on pole, the Red Bull driver headed Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri throughout the Japanese GP to move to within a point of Norris at the top of the championship standings.
It was a supreme performance in a car generally accepted to be some way off the pace of the McLarens he successfully fended off.
“I’m very happy with what I’m doing right now. But I could think what would happen when I would be in that other car,” he told ViaPlay after the race.
Asked if he was referring to the McLaren, he savagely responded: “Yes, you wouldn’t see me anymore!”
Verstappen’s victory was largely a result of his qualifying performance, a lap many have regarded as the best of his 41 Formula 1 poles.
Track position was critical in the race itself as overtaking proved near impossible and tyre degradation was significantly less than in previous years.
“The whole race I saw two orange cars in my mirror, and yeah, especially those last 20 laps, we were pushing quite hard out there,” Verstappen subsequently told the media.
“You could just feel the tyres were degrading more and more. But you had to keep on fighting it, basically being on the limit.
“Very proud with this result,” he added.
“Most of it, of course, was done yesterday, being able to start from pole, because around here I think it’s just very hard to follow.
“You only have one DRS zone as well here, so it’s very tough.
“Plus the degradation seemed quite low, so you do a one-stop.
“But still, we take it, we really maximised the weekend, and I’m very proud of everyone.”
The RB21 is known to be a difficult car, which Verstappen has managed to drag to podium finishes in two of the first three races.
“That’s one of Max’s best weekends,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner declared.
“We literally turned the car upside down set-up wise, he’s worked very hard with the engineering team.
“Finally, we were able to give him a car that he could make use of in Q3 yesterday with the most stunning lap and then convert that today in a hard-fought victory in a straight fight.
“The beginning of the weekend looked like we were out the window,” he added.
“We managed to get the car into a decent window and Max Verstappen demonstrated why he’s got number one on that car.”
The performance even left McLaren team boss Andrea Stella singing the four-time world champion’s praises.
“Hats off to Max and Red Bull at this track,” he began.
“There were some other variables that you may have at some other circuit that were not available, like there was no higher degradation, so you can’t do very much.
“Once you nail the qualifying laps like Max did yesterday, then it gets a little bit difficult to get out of the rabbit hole.”
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