Verstappen, a more complicated qualification than expected: “We lacked a little grip”

In France, Max Verstappen certainly thought he was going to be able to take the 17th pole position of his career. After the third free practice session, the world champion had shown the capabilities of his RB18 and emerged as the favorite for pole position. But on the Paul Ricard circuit, Ferrari pulled out the aspiration card. With a Carlos Sainz condemned to start at the back of the grid on Sunday, the Team sent the Spaniard onto the track to give the poleman a boost, Charles Leclerc.

At Red Bull, for the last attempt in Q3, we did not want to reproduce Ferrari's strategy. Max Verstappen then had to look for resources himself to get back on the Monegasque. But it was insufficient to close the gap of 3 tenths of a second. So obviously, the Dutchman was torn between disappointment at not being on pole and enthusiasm for the race on Sunday. “ Well, EL3 is not a qualification, clearly, jokes Max Verstappen. But overall we were lacking a bit of grip in qualifying, so it was a bit trickier than I would have hoped.” The Red Bull driver already experienced grip problems on Friday. During FP2, Max Verstappen complained of understeer particularly in the first sector.

Verstappen plans to take advantage of Red Bull's top speed

All is not lost for the French Grand Prix. With Sergio Pérez in 3rd position, the Dutchman intends to give the Monegasque a hard time. “ We still have a good race car and I hope tomorrow works in our favor, we are fast on the straights so I hope we can use that tomorrow », Estimates Max Verstappen. In the Mistral straight, the Red Bulls were able to demonstrate their performance and will certainly try to use DRS to overtake Charles Leclerc in this portion of the track.

But the Red Bull driver does not know how to comment on how the race went on Sunday. “We will see tomorrow, it will obviously be a little warmer, but it is clear that they were still very fast,” analyzes the world champion about Scuderia Ferrari.

ALSO READ > Leclerc back in pole position thanks to the collective work of Ferrari