The first Sprint Qualifying session of the year was impacted by rain just before the end of the SQ2 session, which carried through to the final top-10 SQ3 shootout and Max Verstappen said “It was just like driving on ice” at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Verstappen will line up in fourth place for Saturday morning’s China Sprint, with Sprint pole-sitter Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso set to start ahead of him.
With rain added into the mix, Verstappen, widely regarded as a wet-weather specialist went wide at Turn 6 and 16 during his first two laps in SQ3.
It means the form book heading into the weekend has been temporarily torn up with Verstappen undoubtedly being the heavy favourite before the on-track action, but the Dutchman described that the tricky conditions impacted his feeling during Sprint qualifying en route to posting the fourth-fastest time.
“It was incredibly slippery,” the Dutchman said.
“I struggled a lot to get the temperature in the tyres, it was very difficult to keep the car on-track, and it never really switched on for me.
“It was just like driving on ice. That’s why I think it was quite deserved where we are in qualifying, because it’s not really working for me in the wet, even though I think the dry we look quite good. So of course I’m quite happy with that.”
With just one practice session proceeding the rain-affected Sprint qualifying, there are still plenty of unknowns heading into the Saturday morning Sprint.
Despite being in the unfamiliar position of the second row thanks to Friday afternoon’s performance, Verstappen said “for sure” there will still be opportunities to have a strong result in the Sprint race.
Still, limited grip thanks to Shanghai’s peculiar Bitumen track detailing does make the Sprint a tricky prospect and Verstappen believes the behaviour of the tyres will have a large impact on how the order settles in the short race format.
“It’s not ideal to start on the inside here, there’s a lot lower grip, left to right with this like painted stuff on the tarmac,” Verstappen said.
“We have to try and have the best start possible. Then of course it’s going to be quite a long stint on one set of tyres in the sprint, but that makes it quite interesting again.”
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