Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen has credited his team for helping him to a seventh-place finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The 17-year-old Dutchman became the youngest ever points scorer in Formula 1, and puts that down to his team's decision to switch tyre strategies halfway through the race.

He told formula1.com: "I really enjoyed that. I'm very happy to have scored my first ever points in F1 and to end seventh. I think we did a great job as a team. The first few laps were a bit tricky for me as I was struggling a lot on the medium tyres, so we boxed early for the hard ones and that worked perfectly, the car felt great.

"We had a few good fights with other competitors and it was good fun. This was the right strategy and we did a great job managing the tyres. I felt well physically, it was quite hot at the end but I was still able to cope with it and be consistent, so I'm happy with that. This is a big boost for the team, we couldn't have done a better job today."

Verstappen's teammate Carlos Sainz Jr finished one place behind him in eighth in Sepang.