Turn three at the Red Bull Ring caused problems for Max Verstappen in qualifying, the Red Bull driver admitted.
“I hoped for a little better balance in the car but overall it was not too bad,” said Verstappen, who qualified sixth but will start Sunday’s race from fifth on the grid following Lewis Hamilton’s penalty.
Verstappen spun off at the end of the session while trying to improve his time. “On my final run I was gaining time but I didn’t get DRS down the straight as [Romain] Grosjean was stopped on track. You lose easily two and a half tenths on that straight if you don’t have DRS.”
“I tried to get a little more out of the next corners but I picked up the throttle maybe a little too early at turn seven and lost the rear.”
Red Bull are unlikely to be in a position to repeat their win from two weeks ago at their home track, says Verstappen.
“Tomorrow I don’t think we are quite there in terms of speed to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari,” he said, “but as we have seen a lot can happen in the race so anything is possible.”
JeffreyJ
8th July 2017, 17:03
Eratic performance from him again today…
luckily he’ll start on the clean side due to Hamilton ‘ s penalty
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th July 2017, 17:23
He’s been great this season, not the first time his q3 doesn’t stack up to his Q2, he underperformed, the RB guys are clearly more interested in taking risks and having a go at the top rather than keep lurking below the podium, their hunger might make tomorrow’s race dramatic.
faulty (@faulty)
8th July 2017, 18:05
Car’s on the ragged edge, drivers need no be there.
I’m going with Ricciardo for this one as well.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
8th July 2017, 17:28
Bit of a pathetic excuse. He got it perfectly right all weekend, his Q2 was exceptional. Only when it mattered did he fail. A bit too familiar that.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
8th July 2017, 18:04
He seems to choke under pressure a lot.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
8th July 2017, 18:46
Yeah. Quali especially. Race less.
Murph (@)
8th July 2017, 18:58
Lol.
Qualifying 2017, Verstappen 5-Ricciardo 4.
Guess he chokes less under pressure than former quali king Ricciardo.
A motorsports fan
9th July 2017, 7:37
obviously those two blokes either know they are talking nonsense with the sole aim to provoke. so don’t react.
GoMax
8th July 2017, 19:02
What? He is ahead of Daniel in the qualifying battle, even though he couldn’t compete in China’s qualifying session because of an engine failure. So he is showing a good performance in qualifying this year and this never was his strongest point. Even at Toro Rosso in one lap pace they were pretty similar with Sainz, but in other skills like race pace, tyre management, overtaking, defending Verstappen was way ahead.
Matn
8th July 2017, 21:40
So Max can’t get it together and it looks familiar? chocke under pressure? never was his strongest point?…. duh
It’s 5-4 in the quali battle, with the nuance that in China Verstappens car failed in Q1, in Bahrein he was off by 0.1 sec merely dus to Massa ruining his warm up lap, at Sochi his car came apart (damaged floor, bargeboard waterpump and an engine swap after quali) all this is still no re than 0.2 sec off.
Meanwhile Ricciardo crashed out 2 times in Q3…
Verstappen pushed, but couldn;t get it together in Q3, making mistakes in all 3 runs (last run yellow flag) still less than 0.1 sec off Ricciardo’s time.
If Ricciardo is known as a qualifying expert… what’s Verstappen then..?
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
9th July 2017, 7:49
Simple. Verstappen is faster than Ricciardo and has been all season but it’s still only 5-4. Bahrain, Russia, Austria. Three races where Verstappen was faster through the weekend and quali and yet lost out in Q3 when it really mattered. Much as it good to see him at 5-4 you have to wonder about his ability to turn a clear advantage into something real. Being the faster of the two drivers only works if you actually put it to practice.
Murph (@)
9th July 2017, 8:39
You know, that all would sound pretty logical, except for the fact that he is up against Ricciardo, the established qualifying king, who is well known for his ability to extract something extra from the car during qualifying.
It’s not Max’s weakness, but it’s Ricciardo’s strongpoint. (And Max is slowly chipping away that status.)
This choking under pressure story would make a lot more sense when a driver fails to qualify on the car’s designated spot, which is 5 and 6 on the grid for Red Bull. And as far as I remember, Max qualified 7th once (China not counting) and Ricciardo qualified 10th twice. (by parking his car in the barrier)
faulty (@faulty)
8th July 2017, 18:03
No shed, Sherlock!
erikje
8th July 2017, 20:51
At least a driver who admits his errors.. fresh honest and not a PR puppy.
ia
8th July 2017, 22:19
Like Max always says: “Saterday is fun, but Sunday matters”
ia
8th July 2017, 22:35
I believe only Bottas didn’t make a mistake today
Guybrush Threepwood
8th July 2017, 23:00
Did you see his pole lap? It was full of errors. He was just lucky that Hamilton made bigger errors.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th July 2017, 6:55
It wasn’t full of errors. He had a few very small mistakes in the first sector. Sky looked at the rest of the lap and in most of it, he absolutely nailed it which is what made it count. He also didn’t make a mistake in his first sector on his 2nd attempt which Vettel and Hamilton did so he looked like he may have been the only one of the top 3 to possibly improve a little more. Hamilton had made a big enough mistake on his 2nd attempt that he backed off. Vettel didn’t look much better.
Adrian
9th July 2017, 1:41
Well I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. He will probably drive his powertrain to destruction on lap 10, but I am sure the f1 fanatic editor will still rate him driver of the race…..in fact why stop there: the best driver in f1 history to have never finished a race.
Patrick (@anunaki)
9th July 2017, 8:36
Yes that’s what he does. He overdrives the powertrain, and the brakes, and even Bottas 1st corner moves are failing because of Max. Rumors say Max is to blame for Honda’s trouble as well.
GtisBetter (@)
9th July 2017, 10:24
I heard Max overslept his bed, then overwalked his shoes to breakfast, where he overate only to overtalk at the morning meeting while they were figuring out the real specifications of the Renault engine that seem to differ from the one they have gotten.