Verstappen ‘very happy’ with second in front of ‘home’ fans

2016 Belgian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen says that he is ‘very happy’ to have secured the first front-row start of his Formula 1 career in front of a sizeable crowd of Dutch supporters in Spa.

The Red Bull driver set a new record for being the youngest driver ever to start a grand prix on the front row by qualifying second behind Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes.

“I’m just very happy to be on the front row in Spa, in front of all my home fans,” says Verstappen. “It’s great to break a record, but I want to break other records.”

Verstappen was only 0.149s away from taking a maiden pole position, but is not disappointed to have only just missed out on beating a Mercedes to pole.

“Yeah, you can always do better job, but also Nico could’ve done a better lap,” Verstappen explains.

“It’s always when you put everything together. To be so close to them on a track like that with these straights, we can be very pleased with that.”

There had been some drama for the 18-year-old earlier in the day after Verstappen was forced to sit most of the final practice session out with a suspected gearbox issue. Fortunately for Verstappen, Red Bull were able to fix the issue without having to change the gearbox.

“The whole weekend has been very smooth, even with the little issues this morning, but the mechanics did a great job and in qualifying the car was working really well as you can see in sector two,” says Verstappen.

“So I’m very pleased to be second here in front of my fans – it’s a great motivation to see them there next to the track.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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3 comments on “Verstappen ‘very happy’ with second in front of ‘home’ fans”

  1. Here’s hoping for his sake tomorrow is indeed cooler as forecast, or even rain. Would reduce his disadvantage

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      27th August 2016, 16:17

      It’s forecast to be around 5 degrees cooler. Unlikely (well… as unlikely as it ever is at Spa) to rain.

      1. Seen that, but all over the Benelux right now there are surprise thunderstorms, one might well hit tomorrow and change everything.

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