The Dutchman was outqualified by teammate Daniel Ricciardo for the third consecutive time in Montreal on Saturday, as they ended up fourth and fifth on the grid.

But despite a 0.248 seconds gap deficit to his Australian teammate, Verstappen says that anyone expecting more from him needs to remember how he has only just arrived at Red Bull.

"I don't think it's a big gap, anyway," he said. "My last run didn't really work out, but before that we were making good progress. So I'm not too worried about that.

"I'm next to a very experienced driver. Probably one of the best on the grid. So to be that close in my third race [is not bad], because many people start to forget that.

"You know, I won my first race, but that doesn't mean I'm straight up to the pace I want to be. So I'm still learning.

"I approach this year anyway as a learning year. Even though I won a race, I still have to get used to the car and get everything out of it."

Fourth possible

Verstappen believes he had the potential to outqualify Ricciardo in Canada, but too much oversteer on his final lap proved costly.

"We could have been fourth, but definitely not third," he said. "It was OK. I enjoyed it. In general the whole weekend so far.

"Of course we wished to be a little bit closer to the Mercedes, but on the other hand also not too far off."

Monaco knock

Verstappen also said that he had taken a few days to reset himself after his Monaco Grand Prix troubles, having been quite self-critical about the mistakes he had made there.

"I'm always hard on myself," he said. "Definitely after Monaco, you just don't like what happened and it shouldn't happen again."

He added: "I think three days after Monaco, you know, at one point you have to get over it and start working ahead and that's definitely what we did.

"I think the whole weekend here actually was pretty strong. So we are in the top five and we have a lot of possibilities for the race."