• Canadian Grand Prix

Vergne sends out message to Red Bull

Jean-Eric Vergne never relinquished sixth place after his first pit stop © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Canadian Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Jean-Éric Vergne

• Teams:
• Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne sent out a message to Red Bull after securing a career-best sixth place in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Having started from seventh on the grid, Vergne passed Valtteri Bottas early on and was never in serious danger of losing sixth as he ran competitively throughout the race. After describing his weekend as "incredible", Vergne also pointed out to Red Bull that his result was Toro Rosso's highest finish since Sebastian Vettel finished fourth in his final race for the team.

"Incredible! I'm very happy," Vergne said. "The best result for me of course, but also the highest finishing position since Vettel's results for the team in 2008. It is even more satisfying, because it was a normal race in the dry, with no one going out in front of me so we achieved this position fair and square. It's a great result for the team as we are making progress race by race and it's very encouraging for the rest of the season.

"It wasn't too complicated, because we had the pace to maintain that position, although we did not have the speed of those ahead. I passed Bottas and [Kimi] Raikkonen and from then I managed my race, keeping an eye on [Adrian] Sutil who was behind me for much of the time. That meant I could never ease up until the flag."

Vergne added that he felt he was improving markedly this season and is already setting his sights on bettering this result.

"After finishing eighth in Monaco, this result on another difficult track has boosted my confidence and I feel I have progressed as a driver. We must continue to push hard on the development of the car, starting with the next race at Silverstone, so that we can aim even higher than this."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.