TEXAS: The three-time World Champion Max Verstappen hasn’t made many mistakes this season, with the Dutchman usually in command. However, two errors on his final flying lap in qualification cost the Red Bull driver in Austin. As a result, he will start Sunday’s United States Grand Prix in sixth place, which will be unfamiliar to him.
It had all started so well for the freshly crowned World Champion, with Verstappen leading the lone practice session and appearing to be in pole position. He seemed at ease in both Q1 and Q2, but was pipped on the first flying runs in Q3 by a razor-sharp Charles Leclerc.
With everything to play for on the final runs, Verstappen locked up into Turn 1, sending him fractionally wide. He launched his RB19 around the final corner and just slipped wide, knowing he was trying to make up for those lost fractions.
“I mean I knew in (Turn) 19 it was going to be a close call. I had a little mistake in Turn 1, I had to really push for it in the rest of the lap… Honestly, I didn’t even steer, I just tried to maximise the corner and I misjudged it by a little bit, it’s very fine margins when you are pushing to the limit. It makes the Sunday a bit more fun!” Verstappen was quoted as saying by Formula 1.
That final lap time was 0.005s faster than Leclerc’s pole lap, but the stewards quickly removed it from the record books for track limit violations, dropping the Dutchman to sixth place.
It’s not his lowest starting spot of the season; he was 15th in Saudi Arabia, ninth in Miami, and 11th in Singapore recently. Verstappen was clearly unconcerned about the Grand Prix because he already had the world championship clinched.
“I mean it’s probably not ideal, but I’ve also started further back and it’s all about if you have a good pace, you will pass, you will move forward. We want to win so of course today was not ideal but it’s still a long race, a lot of things we can do better and have a bit of fun out there as well”, he added.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez prepared for this race by spending three days in the Red Bull simulator, attempting to figure out what’s been wrong with his set-up selections and figuring out how to get more speed out of the obviously quick RB19.
He looked speedy in sections of qualifying before faltering in Q3 to finish ninth, admitting that he was “struggling” with the car’s balance.
“It wasn’t a straightforward one. We did some changes that probably didn’t help us so much, but the margins were so tight today that a tenth will have looked so much different in the qualifying. But we are the wrong side of it, hopefully tomorrow we can have a better Shootout and get some points”, Perez said. (ANI)