Max Verstappen was delighted with the ‘unbelievable’ turnaround in performance between Friday and Saturday for Oracle Red Bull Racing, with the Dutchman securing his fourth pole position of the season at Circuit Zandvoort.

The pace of Red Bull was disappointing on Friday, with Verstappen down in eighth in the second session after missing most of the first due to a gearbox issue. 

However, come Qualifying, the pace of the RB18 was back to where the reigning World Champion had hoped it would be, and he secured top spot by 0.021 seconds from Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

“Unbelievable! We had a difficult day yesterday, the whole team worked really hard over night to turn it around and we recovered well,” said Verstappen.  

“Again, today we had a quick car and it was enjoyable to drive; a qualifying lap around here feels insane.”

Verstappen says it is likely to be close between Red Bull, Ferrari and maybe even the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team on Sunday, but he feels should they get strategy calls right, he can come through to win his home Grand Prix for a second consecutive season.

“I know it’s going to be close during the race, but I think if we make the right calls on tyres and execute it well, we should stand a good chance tomorrow,” he said.

“The atmosphere is amazing here, I hope the fans are having a great time, I really can feel the support and I can hear them all around the track.”

“I went a bit too hot into the final corner” – Sergio Pérez

Team-mate Sergio Pérez will start the race in fifth, but the Mexican felt he could have been higher up the grid but for a mistake that saw him spin exiting the penultimate corner on his final attempt.

Pérez was showing signs of setting a faster lap time when he spun, and the yellow flags prevented anyone behind him from improving their times, including Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

The Mexican feels he can still secure a good result from the third row of the grid, and he is looking forward to the battle at the front that he believes could involve three teams in The Netherlands.

“I was pushing it to the limit on the final lap of Q3 and I just went over the limit a little, it’s a shame,” said Pérez.  “I went a bit too hot into the final corner and in the end I was lucky not to damage the car.

“I touched the throttle too early; I just kissed the gravel and unfortunately, I lost the rear end. I was on a good lap and could have improved quite a bit but we lost out.

“We are still P5 though and we can race from there but it will be very important to have a strong race pace. We have made positive changes to the car since yesterday and we are on the right track, this morning the long run was positive so I’m hopeful to carry that into tomorrow and make up some good positions on the leaders.

“We think it could be a very close race between us, the Mercedes and the Ferraris, it could be a battle and I am looking forward to it.”