Team boss Christian Horner said Verstappen's lap of one minute 22.109 seconds was one of his best of the year and the Dutch driver sounded remarkably relaxed given the amount of pressure on him.
The South-East Asian country is a growing market for sponsors such as brewer Heineken and will give the region four races on the calendar again after the departure of Malaysia last year.
Valtteri Bottas won a dramatic first race of the delayed Formula One season for champions Mercedes in Austria on Sunday
Photographs of the skywriting were widely shared online but it was unclear who was responsible for them. But the Australian Grand Prix authorities were adamant that Albert Park would welcome thousands of motor sport fans from Thursday when practice sessions and qualifying commence for lower-profile touring car series.
Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on pole position for their home Italian Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday in a qualifying session that ended in farce and with drivers under investigation.
The sky's the limit for George Russell after the British youngster's stellar performance
Perez, who vaulted to fourth in the overall standings after Sunday's race, is the first Mexican driver to win a race since Pedro Rodriguez took victory in the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix.
Hamilton already has plenty of records, including 87 pole positions and 33 successive scoring finishes, and his 83 wins put him on course to surpass Schumacher's record tally of 91 next year.
Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne said while he supported cost-cutting, there are other strategic issues under discussion that could force Ferrari to consider racing elsewhere.
Sport and society remain stuck in the 'stone age' when it comes to women's rights, Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday.
IMAGES from the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Saturday in a Mercedes one-two that ended Sebastian Vettel's bid for a fourth in a row.
Is Lewis Hamilton sufficiently appreciated at home?
Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for a record-extending eighth time on Sunday despite a 10-second penalty for a controversial first lap collision that sent Red Bull rival Max Verstappen crashing out of the race.
Hamilton has already won the title, his record-equalling seventh, but the Briton is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.
Schumacher turned 50 on January 3 but has not been seen in public
Formula One motor racing: Team prospects for 2018
Bottas said he was already looking forward to next season despite the fact there are still two races left on the current calendar.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz will make a dream move to Ferrari next year, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo replacing him at McLaren, as Formula One's driver carousel took another big twirl on Thursday with the 2020 season yet to start. Ferrari said 25-year-old Sainz, who replaces four times World champion Sebastian Vettel alongside young Monegasque Charles Leclerc at the sport's most glamorous team, had signed for 2021 and 2022.
Two members of the Haas Formula One team and one from McLaren were quarantined in Melbourne on Wednesday as a precaution amid coronavirus fears ahead of Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. McLaren said one team member had self-isolated in the team hotel as a precaution for showing 'coronavirus-like symptoms'.
The family's departure marks the end of an era after 43 years and 739 Grands Prix.
Charles Leclerc crashed at the end of qualifying for his home Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday
Malaysia will stage its final Formula One Grand Prix in October after the government and the sport's commercial rights holders announced on Friday that their hosting agreement would end a year early.
Lewis Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to miss last year's penultimate Sakhir Grand Prix in December.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, last year's winner at his team's home circuit, qualified third.
Mick Schumacher, son of seven times world champion Michael, made his Formula One test debut with Ferrari on Tuesday at the Bahrain circuit, where 15 years ago his father won the first Grand Prix in the Middle East.
One police officer involved was fired by the city's police department in June. Two other officers have been placed on administrative reassignment. No criminal charges have been filed against any of the three.
Force India's Sergio Perez refused to rule out a move to Ferrari on Thursday, even though he denied any contact with the Italian Formula One team and said the rumours about his future reflected his form.
While Formula One rivals compete in virtual grands prix and various esports series during the coronavirus lockdown, six-times World champion Lewis Hamilton has been busy racing against himself. The Briton has been a keen gamer since boyhood and for some years a brand ambassador for the Gran Turismo franchise on Sony's PlayStation.
The Thai's victory over his Ferrari rival gave Red Bull something to celebrate on a day that should have seen the return of Max Verstappen's home Dutch Grand Prix after a 35-year absence.
Schumacher was taken to the Pompidou hospital in southwest Paris on Monday afternoon, Le Parisien said, without citing its sources.
Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix will be the 1,000th race of the Formula One world championship since the first at Silverstone in 1950.
Verstappen leads seven times world champion Hamilton by six points with six races remaining and the pole at Austin's Circuit of the Americas was the ninth of the season for the Dutch 24-year-old -- and eighth in the last 11 races.
Vietnam is a growing market for sponsors such as brewer Heineken and would be a fifth Asian race on the calendar, making up for the departure of Malaysia.
Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix
Formula One will have simpler, cheaper and noisier engines from 2021 as part of a "road map" for the future presented to teams on Tuesday that could entice new manufacturers to enter the sport.
Verstappen led from start to finish at Austria's Red Bull Ring, with seven-time world champion Hamilton second for Mercedes.
Vettel will be sharing Ferrari testing duties with the 20-year-old at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit next week after the second grand prix of the season.
Mick Schumacher, who is the son of legendary driver Michael Schumacher, has said that Formula One has always been his goal and he is still aiming for the same.
