Max Verstappen sent his Red Bull RB16B to third in qualifying, due to Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty good for P2 on the grid. However, the gap was not very small at three tenths. In any case, the weekend is not going smoothly yet, but where in particular did it go wrong in qualifying?
A battery problem didn’t help him, he says. However, a problem, more of a shortcoming: “The last laps of qualifying are just a bit faster. You are on the accelerator more and as a result you also use more of your battery. less energy left and then you lose a tenth or one and a half,” explains Verstappen to, among other things, RacingNews365.
Not that it would have made a difference in terms of positions, because the gap to P2 was bigger than those one and a half tenths: “But then it looked a bit better. We did take a step forward during the weekend, but not enough .”
And for tomorrow, as indicated earlier, Verstappen expects little improvement, he knows that Mercedes is a size too big: “It’s not our weekend, because we can’t get the balance right and I don’t know what it is.”
“Mercedes is also reasonably fast here on the straights. This circuit is for a large part full throttle and that doesn’t help us of course,” continues Verstappen. “Normally it’s no different in the race, not on a dry track, at least. Of course things can always happen, but in general we are just too slow.”
– .
