Max Verstappen was left surprised after claiming P1 in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, with the Dutchman admitting that he “didn’t expect” the turnaround in his car’s performance following a difficult run hours earlier in the Sprint. However, the Red Bull man will now start the Grand Prix from P2 after being hit with a one-place grid drop post-qualifying
Having started from P6 in the 100km dash, Verstappen slipped backwards at the start after struggling with oversteer in his RB20. He eventually recovered to P8, but suggested afterwards that the issues could be difficult to solve for the rest of the weekend.
Fast forward to qualifying and things looked very different for Verstappen, culminating in the world champion storming to P1 in the final moments of Q3 to displace George Russell by just 0.055s, though he would be later hit with his grid drop.
Asked about the turnaround after jumping out of the car, Verstappen responded: “Yeah, crazy! Honestly, I also didn’t expect that. Well done to the team to give me a car that feels a bit more connected. Once the car is together you can also push harder. It felt a lot better out there in qualifying for me.”
Pushed further on what the secret was to the dramatic change – with parc ferme rules lifted after the Sprint – the Red Bull man explained: “I mean, we did change a bit on the car but I never thought it would make such a swing in performance so that’s promising.
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