Max Verstappen plays down Monaco expectations

Verstappen, 18, profited from Mercedes' intra-team collision at the start of the race and managed a two-stop strategy to resist Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen and secure his first Grand Prix victory.

Verstappen starred on his Monaco debut last year before he erred on the approach to Sainte Devote while battling Romain Grosjean and crashed out at high speed.

"We'll see what happens in Monaco," he said.

"The car should be quite fast, we'll have to wait and see.

"The target for Monaco is to stay out of the walls, if you can stay out of the walls then hopefully we can be close to or on the podium."

Verstappen revealed that he had to keep thoughts about potentially securing victory out of his mind during the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix.

"I thought with five laps to go 'okay now we have to win this race' as I saw Kimi struggling with his tyres as well, from there I was make no mistakes, make sure the exit from the last corner, and that will get you the win.

"The thing is you start to think about and you're like 'don't think about it, don't think about it, just focus on what you have to do at that moment.'"