Max Verstappen believes Red Bull shouldn’t have had the pace to secure a front row spot for the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix Sprint race.
Verstappen is set to line up alongside old adversary Lewis Hamilton for Saturday’s Sprint at the Shanghai International Circuit with the legendary duo separated by a mere 0.018s.
The shock omission was the two McLaren drivers who suffered with a fast, but prickly MCL39 leaving a positively surprised Verstappen to capitalise.
“I do think that in first practice we were quite a bit off so I’m very happy to be on the front row,” the Dutchman said on Friday.
“The lap was very good, it’s very tough when you go from a medium to a soft to nail the lap with no references,” he added, referencing the peculiar tyre rules that mandate medium compounds for the first two segments of Sprint Qualifying.
“I mean, of course, when you look at it, it was 18 thousandths or something off of pole, but I don’t think we should have even been on the front row anyway, so I’m very happy to be second.”
Verstappen went on to say that he and the team made minimal changes to the RB21 as drivability wasn’t an issue heading into Sprint Qualifying.
Instead, the 2025 Red Bull challenger lacks overall pace, as Liam Lawson’s SQ1 exit demonstrated.
Equally, Verstappen’s result showed how maximum efficiency can pay huge dividends.
“I don’t think the balance is massively off we’re just too slow, I would say,” said Verstappen.
“But this [result] is good for us, a little motivation boost I think as well for everyone.
“We keep nailing the laps, we keep trying to maximise everything that we got and you need to do that as well when you’re maybe struggling a little bit more for pace.”
Verstappen analyses China Sprint prospects
Looking ahead to Saturday’s Sprint, Verstappen held a glass-half-full mentality.
He expects Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to pose a threat from third and sixth on the grid, but at least thinks he can challenge amongst the front runners in his Red Bull.
“I think we’ve got a car to try and keep something because the McLarens didn’t look as quick today in that session as we thought they would be,” he began.
“I think they looked very fast up until that last run, so I think it will be very hard to keep them behind, but hopefully it’ll be fun.
“We are all, I wouldn’t say close, but at least we can race a bit around, that would be nice for me.”
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