Verstappen: Mercedes will be hard to beat

Max Verstappen was the best of the others by failing more than 3 tenths from the pole Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). The pilot Red Bull will nevertheless have the satisfaction of starting on the front line with the penalty of Valtteri Bottas.

The Red Bull driver who recently celebrated his second pole at the Brazilian GP did not really expect to beat the W10s on the Yas Marina track where the Silver Arrows are used to excel.

“The Mercedes seem to dominate here, admitted the Dutchman. We did our best and I'm happy to take the first line, even if I would have preferred to get it as a regular. I don't think there was much more we could do. There are always several circuits on the calendar where some cars are better than others and easier to tune. It's a circuit for Mercedes while we are in more difficulty in the last sector. »

Max Verstappen nevertheless hopes to have his chances for the race, hoping to achieve a 9th victory in F1, even if he knows that his best chances lie when the lights go out.

“The start will be important because overtaking is difficult here, but the race is long and we will obviously do everything to win. I had good stints in testing but so did the Mercedes. We'll see what happens in the race." he concluded.

Max Verstappen managed to take the last step of the podium last year in Abu Dhabi. His teammate Alexander albon will struggle to imitate this performance by starting from 5th place behind the Ferrari de Charles Leclerc et Sebastian Vettel.