Incredible turnaround for Verstappen, speechless after pole in Qatar

This one, no one saw it coming. Not even the owner Max Verstappen. Far from the mark during the Sprint where he failed to get rid of the Haas de Nico Hulkenberg, finishing barely 8th, the Dutchman turned the tide in qualifying.

Taking advantage of the reopening of the Parc Fermé between the Sprint Race and the Grand Prix qualifications, Red Bull managed to make some adjustments to give his world champion an RB20 capable of playing a leading role again. Thus, he found himself in the shoes of a serious candidate for pole position, which he eventually took, ending 11 weekends of drought.

« This is completely crazy, smiled Max Verstappen, on pole for the first time since Austria last July. In all honesty, I didn't expect it. Congratulations to the whole team. They gave me a car that I feel more in tune with. By being more comfortable, I was able to push more. I really felt a lot better during these qualifications.

We made some changes but we didn't think we could have such a performance gain. It's promising. I hope it will be similar in the race but we can't say anything yet. Overall the car was much more stable over one lap and that's what we needed. I'm very happy to be on pole, it's been a long time »

As for the race, the four-time world champion expects to battle with physical effort but also tire wear, which is very high in Qatar.

« It will be a difficult race from a physical point of view., he anticipates. But also on the tires. We will have to be good on the management, like the front left which wears a lot here. I hope we could achieve it with the settings we found »

Max Verstappen will have to wait before validating this 41st career pole position because he could be sanctioned by the race direction. Indeed, the Dutchman found himself in the trajectory of George Russell. If he is found guilty, he could be given a grid penalty while he was summoned by the stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly.

MAX VERSTAPPEN’S POLE 🦁

But the world champion bothered George Russell at the end of the session… 👀#QatarGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/zpuR7jA5Gj

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) November 30, 2024

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