Oliver Bearman exclaimed, "I was s****ing myself" while waiting for Max Verstappen to catch him during the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday. The Haas racer scored a career-best fourth-place finish at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but narrowly missed out on his team's first-ever F1 podium.

Bearman started from the fringes of the top 10, but enjoyed an excellent start before capitalising on a messy scrap between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to land himself in fourth place, sandwiched between the two multi-time world champions.

The FIA stewards then hit Hamilton with a 10-second time penalty for failing to use the escape road correctly when re-entering the track, promoting Bearman into the podium positions behind Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc. He held the gap to Verstappen behind during the first stint, but was usurped on long-run pace by the Dutchman.

"Yeah, I had a good start," Bearman assessed after the chequered flag. "I slotted myself between the two Mercs, I think, and then actually, in those laps, I had good pace. You know, I was able to stay in DRS.

"George lost DRS to the car ahead. And then Hamilton and Max had a bit of a coming together, and I benefited from that, too. Honestly, I was sh***ing myself going side by side with Max.

"But it's really cool to go wheel to wheel with these people that I've been watching since I started watching F1. And I had him in my mirrors for a long time, so it was probably the most pressure I've ever had in a race scenario."

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

Asked if the fight at the front gave him a confidence boost, the 20-year-old added: "Yeah, it's cool and I didn't expect to be fighting against these top cars this year or this stage of my career. But it gives me a great feeling for the future, and hopefully that can be the normal thing instead of a one-off."

Bearman's blockbuster performance has significant ramifications for his team, Haas, who were seen celebrating wildly in the garage with the Brit's family after the chequered flag. The American squad have moved ahead of Sauber and into eighth place in the Constructors' Championship standings, and are now within touching distance of two more teams.

Aston Martin are only seven points ahead of Ayao Komatsu's squad, while Racing Bulls are only nine points in the distance, setting up a tense run to the finish line in Abu Dhabi as the midfield teams jostle for millions of pounds in prize money.