Since Friday, the Monaco Grand Prix has not gone as Max Verstappen expected. The reigning world champion had to settle for fourth position in all the sessions leading up to qualifying and was unable to get past that position in Q3 at Monte Carlo either.
The Dutchman came to sixth in Q1 and was very critical of his car’s behavior this weekend: “I don’t have any grip at the front.”
The boss of his team, Christian Horner , assured that Verstappen lost almost a tenth against Pérez only in the first corner. In Q3, the loss was no longer such, but he did not get past fourth position either. In the final minutes, the world champion seemed to be improving his time, but due to a red flag caused by his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, he had to abort his lap.
As soon as he got off his RB18, the Dutchman acknowledged that he was not satisfied with this result: “It’s a shame. In general, this is a very difficult weekend for me, but that last round at least was a little better”.
“I wouldn’t have taken pole, because Charles Leclerc and Ferrari are very strong this weekend. But I could have finished in a slightly better position. But yes, that’s Monaco too, one red flag and it’s all over. has passed for the second year in a row”.
“Obviously we have to analyze after qualifying where exactly the difference to Ferrari is. I suffered more understeer than I would like. Those things don’t help, especially on a track like this in Monaco where you want the car to turn very fast and that made it difficult today.”
The Red Bull driver pinned his hopes on the probability of rain for the Monaco Grand Prix race, since starting from fourth place, he is aware that coming back will be practically an impossible task in the dry.
“We’ll see tomorrow. Today is a bit disappointing, but in the end you still have to stay focused for the race. Especially since it can be wet.”
“When it rains there’s always a bit of chaos here, also because there are a lot of trucks passing through here during the year. That means the tarmac inside it gets oily and dirty and without counting that it’s still a very slippery track. with all those white stripes on the ground,” concluded Max Verstappen , who currently leads the drivers’ standings.
