Max Verstappen delivered a lap out of this world in qualifying to claim pole position for the 2025 Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, overcoming a car that was “understeering to the moon”.
The Dutchman overcame severe understeer in the challenging RB21 to claim his fourth pole of the season.
After a difficult Friday, Verstappen and Red Bull made key overnight tweaks that transformed the car’s balance, enabling a near-perfect lap in tricky windy conditions.
Oscar Piastri set the early benchmark in Q3, with Lewis Hamilton second, Lando Norris third, and Verstappen fourth.
But the reigning World Champion waited until last to head out, saving his best for a thrilling finale. He nailed every sector perfectly, storming to pole by 0.103s over Piastri, who made a mistake on his final lap.
After the session, Verstappen gave his thoughts on what it meant to take pole at Silverstone.
“Pretty good, I mean it was not easy out there also to just produce a consistent lap time just because of the wind, the gusts and all that you got out there,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“The car was moving around a lot, even just on straights. So, sometimes a bit unpredictable in places because of it, but luckily that last lap came together quite nicely.
“Yeah, just had to commit a lot on the high speed with the slow downforce that we have on the car, which we just tried to build up on. And yeah, luckily in Q3 that worked out.”
A low downforce setup, chosen to reduce the debilitating understeer, ultimately paid off, Verstappen explained.
“We looked a bit slow yesterday on the other wing – plus I was just understeering to the moon – so I had to try and reduce a bit that understeer,” he said.
“It seemed to work, I mean, it is light on downforce for sure – you can see that, I guess. But it seemed to hold up and that’s why we decided to stick with it.
“We’ll see what we get from it tomorrow in the race.”
Red Bull’s turnaround: From Friday struggles to Saturday pole
A familiar pattern has emerged for Red Bull this season: struggling on Friday, making big changes overnight, and finding pace on Saturday.
Verstappen expanded on how much the car’s balance improved from one day to the next.
“In some places, yeah, quite different,” he added on the differences between the RB21 from Friday to Saturday.
“I mean, yesterday it was just understeering a lot, but at the same time also having oversteering in places, so it was very difficult to balance.
“And I think today we definitely improved the understeer and that just allowed me to push a bit more.
“Because I mean, understeer is slow, especially in F1, so we just needed to try and minimise that.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race from pole position, the 27-year-old remained cautiously optimistic about managing tyre life and adapting to the unpredictable weather conditions.
He said: “Naturally, normally in the race runs we struggle a bit more on just tyre life and I don’t know how that will be tomorrow.
“I think we have to wait and see. That’s also how the weather will be in general, if there is some rain or not.
“The straight line speed is nice to have but you still need to manage the tyres around here. It’s very tough with all these high-speed corners but I’m just looking forward to it.
“I mean, I’m not really in a [championship] battle, so I’m just trying to have fun and try to get the best possible result.”
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