Verstappen romped home to a 13-second win over Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai's 19-lap sprint, before going on to claim a dominant pole for Sunday's proper grand prix as well.
A long-time opponent of the sprint format, Verstappen said he was more pleased with his pole position than with his sprint win, although he did concede its rejigged format with two separate parc ferme periods is a big improvement.
"It's a more logical and nicer format," Verstappen said. "I was still happier with pole than with the sprint race, of course.
Elaborating on his opinion to Sky Sports F1, Verstappen added: "I did think it's nicer than what we had, just that you also able to make some changes to the car after the sprint.
"The only thing which was a little bit weird was that you did a race and then you go back into qualifying [mode].
"Maybe we should do qualifying and then the race. I don't know but these are just things to fine-tune maybe. But overall, definitely better than what we used to have."
Source: Autosport