“I’ve messed everything up,” said Max Verstappen after qualifying. The Dutch driver was well aware that he had let a great chance of pole position slip away when he lost control of his Red Bull RB18 on his final run into Q3 at the Miami GP.
Verstappen tried to go to the limit on his last lap, but made a small and costly mistake at Turn 5, being forced to cut off the path of the next turn and abandon that attempt, while a few meters ahead, the Ferraris were fighting for pole between they.
The Dutchman and reigning world champion had set the second fastest time in Q1 and Q2, before going fastest at the first attempt in Q3, less than a tenth ahead of the two Ferraris .
Although he was unable to avoid the monopoly of the Maranello cars, his result seemed outstanding considering the “horrible day” he experienced on Friday when he could not even complete a lap in the second practice session.
“Overall, I’m obviously very happy with qualifying,” Verstappen said. “Yesterday I did four or five laps. Today, all day, I was still trying to learn the circuit to find a good balance in the car. And I was a bit surprised to be so competitive in qualifying, because it’s not an easy track to learn. “said the Red Bull Racing man.
“Of course, normally you want to be on pole, but given our situation I think we’ve done a very good job. But we have to start making the weekends less complicated, because right now it’s going to be difficult [to win].”
Verstappen expects it will be difficult to overtake in the race due to a track that is slippery outside the ideal line, but despite this, he is hopeful of beating the Ferraris . Charles Leclerc will start from pole position, ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz.
“We have a good chance for tomorrow, because we have good top speed, I think the car controls relatively well. So I’m looking forward to the race.”
“Many things can happen tomorrow, I think it will be hotter than today so it will depend a bit on the performance of the tyres,” concluded the Dutchman.
