The reigning world champion had a nice weekend ahead of him at home, the Dutch Grand Prix, as he enjoyed a huge lead in the general classification of the championship over his closest pursuers, his teammate Sergio Pérez and the Ferrari, Charles Leclerc.
However, in the early stages of the event he suffered a gearbox problem that hampered his data collection with his RB18, and he was limited to just 29 laps in all of Friday. For this reason, the last free practice session would be key for the Dutchman, who saw how the single-seaters from Maranello and Mercedes were getting dangerously close in his reign.
With doubts about Red Bull’s performance at Zandvoort, he again imposed his law with an incredible final lap in Q3 that gave him the 17th pole position of his career, the fourth of the season and with which he enters the top 20 in Formula 1 history, tied with a legend on the level of Jackie Stewart .
In addition, Max Verstappen repeats the feat on the track that dyes the stands orange, since last year he set the best time in the classification, and he is only once again the fastest on Saturday from being the absolute king Zandvoort, a record held by René Arnoux with three pole positions, the last in 1982 with Renault.
“Incredible,” he said when it was pointed out that he had repeated the 2021 performance. “Especially after we had a difficult day yesterday as well, but I think we worked very well overnight with the whole team to turn it around.”
“Today we have a fast car again, but it has been very close, and one lap around here, in qualifying is crazy,” said the Red Bull Dutchman. “We have changed a lot, because yesterday we were a bit rushed in Free Practice 2 to get the car ready, but today I enjoyed driving again.”
Max Verstappen enjoys his home Grand Prix, in which the fans were the main protagonists, as an orange flare ended up on the track, causing a red flag that delayed the end of qualifying. The fan who threw said item was ejected from the stands, although that strange interruption at Zandvoort will always be remembered.
The world champion is one of those who thinks that those who do things like that shouldn’t be in the stands, but he was glad to see the stands dyed with the orange that characterizes him so much: “That’s incredible, it’s great to see so much orange here, the support has been amazing all weekend. Thank you.”
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