Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has admitted he was surprised to acquire a record-equalling eighth consecutive Formula 1 pole position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Verstappen had been disgruntled with the balance of his Red Bull RB20 car throughout practice as both Ferrari and McLaren traded times at the top of the timesheets.
However, the Dutchman had appeared more in tune with his car during FP3 and carried that renewed momentum into qualifying to land pole over the McLaren pairing.
Verstappen has divulged that his side of the garage was making set-up tweaks up until the last stages, which enabled him to pump in a 1:14.726s to pip Oscar Piastri.
“Yeah, a really difficult weekend so far, even this morning,” Verstappen conceded. “So yeah, I’m incredibly happy to be on pole here. I didn’t expect that.
“We made some final changes before qualifying. They seemed to make it feel a bit better, I could push a bit harder.
“And this track is unbelievable, on a qualifying lap to be on the limit here, close to the gravel, I touched the gravel in the last corner.
“I’m still pumping, the adrenaline is still very, very high.”
Verstappen has been unbeaten over a single lap since the start of this season in grand prix sessions and has now tied the late Ayrton Senna with eight straight poles.
“It’s of course a great start to the year, but also very special,” he added. “It’s 30 years since he passed away at this track.
“Of course very pleased to get pole here, and in a way, it’s a nice memory to him. He was an incredible Formula 1 driver, especially in qualifying laps as well.
“Great day for me, great day for the team. So I’m very, very happy.”
Piastri edged out McLaren team-mate Lando Norris to a place on the front row, but he rued a minor moment at the Rivazza corner that saw him come 0.074s short.
“A little bit of a scruffy last corner, but I think around here, it’s so, so difficult to do a perfect lap,” he expressed.
“Really happy, I’ve been feeling comfortable with the car from the moment we put it on track yesterday.
“So, so close to pole, but very happy. It’s been a little while since I’ve been back up here, so very happy with how this weekend is going so far.”
McLaren utilised its upgraded MCL38 challenger in Miami a fortnight ago to take the win through Norris and Piastri is hoping it has the pace to challenge Verstappen.
Asked whether he can aim to fight for more tomorrow, Piastri replied: “I think yes. I think in the past we say no, but yeah, I think with our recent performances, we’ve learned to say yes.
“We’ll see what we can do. I think we’ve definitely been on the pace all weekend. You can never count out Max and Red Bull, of course, like we’ve just seen.
“But I don’t know, I think the confidence is high. Of course it’s not the easiest track to overtake on, but the confidence is high that we can do something good.”
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