Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen surprises everyone in qualifying at the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. The heavily beaten McLaren do not give up.
World champion Max Verstappen grinned all over the face after his sensational round at the large price of Saudi Arabia. “I am very satisfied, I would not have expected the pole,” said the surprised Dutchman.
In a miraculous 1: 27.294 minutes, Verstappen had circled the high -speed route on the Red Sea the fastest – nevertheless, after his 42nd Pole, he did not fell into euphoria. “In the race it will be difficult to keep the others behind me”. Nevertheless, he wanted to “see what we can tear”.
The judgment of Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko at “Sky” was a little different. If you can drive away at the front, “life is much easier”, which is why hope is “that we can still be at the forefront”. For protégés Verstappen, the Austrian has only praise.
Marko sure: WM fight a little more open again
“It was a megar round that was unlikely,” he said. The Verstappen RB21 team was able to improve greatly overnight. “You can only hope that these changes will also affect racing distance,” said Marko.
Already in Japan Verstappen had caught all of the fabulous round in qualifying and celebrated a start-finish victory on Sundays. “Now the World Cup fight is a little more open again,” said Marko.
The Grand Prix on Sunday (7:00 p.m. CEST/Sky) for Verstappen is not easy. Oscar Piatri starts right next to him in the McLaren. In addition to his team -mate Lando Norris, the Australian was the top favorite in the starting point, but had to give up by 0.010 seconds. The 24-year-old took a big sip from his water bottle on the shock. “The last round actually felt like the best,” he said. Now he is expecting “an exciting race”.
Hülkenberg disappointed 18.
It hit his garage neighbor, the World Cup leading Norris. In the last qualifying section, the Brit brit too much over a curve in the fast curve and subsequently hit the wall. For him (77 points), the crash comes to the wrong time, he only narrowly leads in front of Piatri (3 points behind) and Verstappen (8 points behind) in the overall classification. The 25-year-old is now under tremendous pressure. Despite the accident, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella found warm words. “His pace at the Longruns was really extremely strong”, which is why Norris could have a “great race” from starting place ten.
However, the real spectacle is likely to take place at the top of the field, because Mercedes also scores the victory. George Russell starts in his silver arrow from third place. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was satisfied. “I think everything is possible,” he said.
The fight for the best starting places was disappointing for the Emmerich Nico Hülkenberg. In his clean he hit teammate Gabriel Bortoleto (20th), but did not get 18. “Annoying” he described his performance at Sky.