His lap actually felt “terrible,” explains Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen after his pole position in Brazil. The Dutchman secured his eleventh pole of the current season on Friday. In Q3 he was more than half a second slower than in Q2.
In the second qualifying segment, the world champion burned a 1:10.162 into the asphalt, in Q3 it was only 1:10.727 – but that was still enough for pole position. Because all the other drivers were significantly slower in Q3 than before.
Verstappen explains: “When we lined up for Q3, you saw that the sky was just black. I thought to myself: ‘Wow, when the rain comes it’s going to be a lot!’ So the outlap was pretty quick.”
“In the lap, the first sector felt okay, but the rest of the lap was shocking,” reports the world champion and explains: “During the lap, the rain came closer. It didn’t start yet, but the wind picked up, and the direction changed to a tailwind in the middle sector.”
“I had never experienced anything like this before”
“The car was just sliding around and I was yelling on the radio, ‘What the hell happened? We’re nowhere!’ But the team told me to keep pushing. They said everyone was having problems,” reveals Verstappen, who had actually already written off his lap.
“No damn grip on this tire, what the hell?” he radioed during his run. His race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase immediately put things into perspective: “Similar comments from the other drivers, Max. Please keep pushing until the end.”
The Dutchman did that too, but then he emphasized: “I had never experienced anything like that [das Wetter] had such a big influence on the balance of the car.” Because even though it wasn’t raining yet, Verstappen had the feeling he had no grip.
It was “pretty hectic” at the end because of the threat of rain, he emphasizes, explaining: “The gaps between everyone were very, very close. In Q1 and Q2 everyone used a lot of sets of tires. I think that made it pretty interesting .”
“I think it’s also because we only had one training session,” he says with regard to the sprint format this weekend and explains: “For example, I didn’t have a lap on the soft tires at all. That’s why the lap time is in Q1 still some room.”
“It was just extremely tight”
But even his 1:10.436 from Q1 was still almost three tenths faster than his pole lap later in Q3. “It was just extremely tight. If you don’t get a good lap, then you’re out. That’s why some people have it [in Q1] used two or even three sentences,” he explains.
“That continued throughout qualifying. There was a threat of rain the whole time, but I think it was pretty clear in Q1 and Q2 that it wasn’t going to happen. But because of everyone else’s pace, you still had to put new tires on,” he said Verstappen.
He also had to struggle with the bumps in Interlagos on Friday. “It was a bit difficult on the bumps. I don’t know the reason because we have the car [nach FT1] not really touched anymore. So we have to understand that,” he muses.
“My car jumps like a kangaroo. The same problem as in Mexico,” he radioed once during qualifying. “But we tried to get around that,” he reports, adding: “Nobody really knew who would have been in front in a normal Q3 without the weather.”
Because it is clear that pole would not have been a sure-fire success for Verstappen and Red Bull. Helmut Marko explained to “Sky” before qualifying that “the others had come closer”. However, there are good reasons for this, according to the Austrian.
Formula 1: Verstappen wants second victory in Brazil
Because Red Bull has “of course already focused on next year’s car,” which is why the other teams have come closer and closer in the past few weeks. “We’re still ahead, but […] “It’s gotten tighter,” says Marko.
This was confirmed again in qualifying. The conditions now “made it pretty interesting for Sunday too,” emphasizes Verstappen, who has only won once in Brazil so far. In 2019 he won the last Red Bull victory in Sao Paulo.
He doesn’t have any good memories of 2022 in particular, but things are “a little better this year,” he explains. A year ago he “only” finished the qualification in P2, the sprint in P4 and the race finally in P6.
In 2023, at least the starting position for Sunday with the pole position will be better.