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Max Verstappen has issued a glum verdict on Red Bull's chances of a strong weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix. The 27-year-old is the home hero at Zandvoort and has won on three of his last four visits to the coastal circuit.

But he comes into this one on the back of one of his worst weekends of the year, last time out at the Hungarian Grand Prix. His car was off the pace from first practice and it led to him qualifying down in eighth and then slipping one place further back in the race.

Verstappen said he "hopes we can be closer" to the front runners in his homeland, after a "not great" weekend in Budapest. But he believes there will be a difficult challenge ahead on a tight and twisty Zandvoort track and admits they may need the forecast rain to work in their favour.

He said: "I don't think this is going to be our best track in the remainder of the calendar. But then again, there might be some [wet] weather coming in as well. That always creates a bit of chaos so we just need to see what happens.

"I would say naturally the more higher-speed corners in the layout, that should be a bit better for us. The low-speed and medium-speed are probably a little bit more difficult."

Verstappen is in a position to which he is unaccustomed. He has won the last four Formula 1 drivers' titles and the most recent three have been dominant successes, with no-one else able to mount a stern challenge.

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McLaren are the dominant force on the grid now, though, and Verstappen has been left to fight for what has been available. That has still yielded two victories, in Japan and Imola earlier in the season, and he knows there might yet be more opportunities if the stars align.

But, with a new set of design and engine regulations coming into force next year, the learning they can take from the final 10 rounds of the year may prove to be the most valuable outcome. He said: "We'll just try to make the best of it every single race we can.

"[We'll] try to see if there are opportunities and try to learn more about the car. Of course next year will be very different with the car but I’m still very curious also to understand the current car a bit more and where we can find a bit of performance to make it a bit easier for ourselves."

Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has scored just seven points since being promoted into the top team after two rounds of the season and admitted: "I definitely have to show more. But actually, the last two races before summer break, that helped a little bit. I need to score points. That's why I was preparing for it in this summer break and just need to score points as much as possible."