Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen attributed his poorer-than-usual Formula 1 qualifying performance for the British Grand Prix to damage sustained during Q1 which effectively “ruined” his chances at claiming pole.
Verstappen secured fourth spot during Saturday’s qualifying behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, plus McLaren’s Lando Norris.
The final Q3 top-10 shootout was run in dry conditions, but Q1 was mixed with intermittent bouts of rain making things treacherous.
Verstappen was one of several drivers caught out, skipping across the gravel at the exit of Copse after a snap of oversteer triggered by a wet patch of the Silverstone circuit.
“Yeah, from Q1, that off, it was just super unlucky,” Verstappen said.
“I came out of [Turn] 7, heading towards Copse, and it started to rain, so I knew that the people in front of me didn’t have that rain patch, and of course they were on slicks, and I knew in Q1 we needed that slick lap in, because you never know if it’s going to rain more and the session is over.
“Naturally of course I tried to keep the speed up. I did slow down knowing it was raining on my visor, but it still snapped on me, and then I had to keep it out of the wall going off-line.
“But then I had to take the gravel which ripped the floor apart, missed quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job trying to recover some of the bits and tried to optimize the balance front to rear.
“But yeah, it was, that basically ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3 already with the damage that we had. And to be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.”
Verstappen’s damage was so significant that it cost 100 points of downforce on his RB20, which the Dutchman praised his team for mitigating with quickfire repairs before he concluded his qualifying efforts.
Luckily Verstappen has a spare floor to do battle with tomorrow and the pecking order suggests he’ll be in a close tussle with both McLarens and Mercedes and it’s clear that five cars are in the hunt for just three podium places on Sunday afternoon at Silverstone.
“I hope it can be an exciting race,” Verstappen said.
“Now we are probably a bit more on the attack, instead of starting first or second, but that’s fine.
“The people around me, we’re all very even on pace I guess.
“Naturally I do think McLaren is always very quick in the race and looking after their tyres. But I hope we can be in that mix, and make it difficult.”
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