Max Verstappen has explained the myriad of obstacles he faced on his way to pole position amid a choatic qualifying session for the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Dutchman snatched pole late in Q3 in dramatic and stop-start qualifying session, which saw a number of drivers fall foul of the Baku City Circuit, including both McLarens.
Oscar Piastri crashed heavily early in the final part of qualifying, and Lando Norris suffered a major brush with the barrier, which cost him time on his final push lap.
With heavy winds contributing to a number of offs suffered by drivers, the red flag was brought out a total of six times during the entirety of qualifying.
Complications was furthered by light rain that fell during Q3, but Verstappen held his nerve to take top spot in the final seconds.
Speaking after the session, Verstappen revealed how difficult it was to maintain focus and to ensure his tyres were optimised as the clock continuously stopped.
“I think it was just a very long qualifying in general with all the red flags, so you never got into a rhythm,” he explained.
“Trying to complete laps was already difficult enough with what was going on, so getting the tyres in the window anyway in your warm-up lap, your out lap is very tough around here.
“So honestly, I was quite happy with how Q1 and Q2 was going. But yeah, Q3 was a very long wait.
“And then choosing what tyres to use also for the final run, there was a bit of rain around in places, so not easy at all.
“But at the end, yeah, of course, very happy to sit here.”
Verstappen: Nailing qualifying laps in heavy winds ‘very tricky’
Verstappen acknowledged that oversteer and understeer was a constant problem amid the thick and tricky winds blowing across the track, and was relieved to come through it with pole.
“Yeah, I mean, this track is already hard enough without anything, so with the strong winds that we had today, car was moving around a lot, understeer, oversteer in different places on the straight, going left to right,” he said.
“So yeah, to basically nail everything, but also then the big interruptions that we had was just very tricky today. But luckily, I think we did quite well.”
Verstappen refused to get ahead of himself as the prospect of consecutive victories for the first time in 2025 loom, exercising caution that the tyre management issues will be significant.
“Yeah, difficult to say at the moment. Of course, it’s a good starting position,” he said. “We just have to try and do our own race, to be honest.
“Hopefully, the car is kind on its tyres, that we can look after them and just go from there.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen snatches dramatic F1 Azerbaijan GP pole as McLarens crash
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