Verstappen explains his poor qualifying performance
Max Verstappen encountered some difficulties with his car this afternoon in qualifying, and will only start from 7th on the grid. Temperatures too high, set-up problems? He explains what went wrong.
After struggling during Friday’s free practice sessions, Max Verstappen felt better in his car this morning… until everything went awry during qualifying. The four-time world champion could only manage a 7th fastest time, far behind Lando Norris’s 1:03.971. Although the yellow flag caused by Pierre Gasly hindered him slightly at the end of Q3, he believes the problem lies with the behavior of his car.
Yesterday, we were really not good, neither on a single lap nor on the long runs. Today, FP3 was a bit more positive, but still mixed, and in qualifying everything went wrong. Every corner was a struggle, I had no balance, I was either understeering or oversteering. Every lap, the car behaved a little differently, so it’s not ideal.
Is the heat responsible for this underperformance? « It probably didn’t help. Warmer conditions are certainly not good for our car, » he admits. If it’s not the heat, could it be the updates that are to blame then? « I don’t want to talk about the updates because they are not the only things that caused all this. It’s just that suddenly, we took a step back and that’s not what you want in qualifications. » Still not. And according to the Dutch driver, this drop in performance is also not due to any setup changes. « We didn’t touch the setup between the two sessions. Only minor changes that don’t influence the car’s balance. But suddenly, with the higher track temperatures and the wind, everything fell apart. »
His feelings are often more pessimistic than the actual situation. So when asked what he expects for tomorrow, here’s what he says: « Not much, not fighting up front, that’s for sure. » Is this off-the-cuff analysis more alarmist than what the race will actually show? Find out tomorrow from 3 PM.
