0
Max Verstappen says that the qualifying lap which put him fourth on the grid for tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix was on the "absolute limit", and that he felt he could do no better despite his usual speed and aggression all weekend.
The three cars ahead of the Dutchman all ended the session just four hundredths of a second away from each other, whilst he found himself a further three-tenths back. Speaking afterwards about the result, Verstappen said: "We have to be realistic. This was the best possible we could do today, the lap was as on the limit as possible.
Analysis: Verstappen Has Become More Vulnerable Under the 2026 Rules
Windsor Predicts Verstappen Will Leave F1: "The Rules Have Reduced Him to an Ordinary Driver"
"I'm pretty happy with that. There were some things calculated slightly wrong on setup on my side of the car on Thursday and we fixed that for today, it was quite a big step for me. Normally, overtaking here is impossible, so we'll be concentrating on a good start and a good strategy, but if we need to get past someone, it's going to be really hard. Even following someone, you lose a lot of grip."
Verstappen's Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was approximately half a second behind in fifth, and upon emerging from the RB13 he bemoaned a timing error caused by the team that released him in traffic for his Q3 run: "Why we went out in traffic when we knew we needed a hard out-lap, that was a pretty obvious mistake," he said.
"I don't know why we didn't wait to put me out in clear air - unless the time was going down and we weren't going to make it, which I don't think was the case. I believe we had all the time we needed. It just seemed like we made a stupid, silly error."
Mason Hawker
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
I. Hadjar
A. Antonelli
C. Leclerc
982 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (0)
Login to reply