Max Verstappen: ‘I knew the rest of the lap needed to be spot on’ after poor first sector

It was a mixed Qualifying for Oracle Red Bull Racing at their home race, with Max Verstappen taking pole at the Austrian Grand Prix but with Sergio Pérez starting from thirteenth place.

The defending World Champion stormed his way to yet another pole position, after fending off pressure from both Scuderia Ferrari drivers. Verstappen in the closing minutes of Qualifying Three was bumped down to third, and looked set to start there after a poor start to his final lap.

However, the Dutchman made up incredible ground in the final sector, to take pole position from Charles Leclerc by +0.019s. It means Verstappen will be starting from the front for Saturday’s Sprint race, where the result from that will determine the line-up for Sunday’s traditional race.

Verstappen was delighted to take pole at the team’s home race, where he knew he had to be right on it in the final sector.

“We can definitely be happy with the result today. On the final lap in Q3, turn one and three weren’t the best so I knew the rest of the lap needed to be spot on. I was down on the first and second sector so pushed hard in the final and it paid off. It was a good session and of course it’s good to be close to the Ferraris again. This season so far, the car has been good in the race compared to qualifying where we’ve been weaker, so hopefully tomorrow we can be competitive in the sprint.”

“I wasn’t able to get into a rhythm” – Sergio Pérez

For Pérez it was a nightmare session, the Mexican not only failed to get “into the rhythm” but also saw himself demoted from fourth, to thirteenth.

The Mexican driver was caught having exceeded track limits on his final Qualifying Two lap; however, his time wasn’t initially deleted. This lap-time saw him go through to the top-ten shootout, at the expense of Pierre Gasly. After the session though Pérez was demoted from fourth place down to thirteenth, due to exceeding track limits in the middle part of qualifying.

It leaves Pérez with a lot of work to do across the Sprint and main race, where he is determined to keep his head down and “push hard to make progress”.

“It was a tricky day, going into qualifying from FP1 things didn’t feel great so there is a bit of understanding needed from our side and hopefully tomorrow we are able to recover. The car was in and out for me during the day and during quali, I wasn’t able to get into the rhythm. It is disappointing to lose fourth place, the track limits are very tight here this season, but it is frustrating that the Team weren’t told my lap time had been deleted during Q2.

“We have the Sprint tomorrow to make up ground and a long race ahead, we have to keep our head down and push hard to make progress and put us in a good position for Sunday.” 

Credit: Clive Rose/ Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool