Unlike the race in the streets of Monaco, it is possible in Azerbaijan to overtake during the race. Max Verstappen’s third starting place on Sunday is therefore not a major disaster. However, after qualifying, the Dutchman was disappointed in conversation with, among others, RacingNews365 of the course of Saturday, because in his own words he could certainly have competed for pole.
“It was about building confidence, because it’s not easy here in Baku on the brakes. The whole qualifying, with all those red flags, didn’t make it easy for us. But yeah, the car felt good, despite the qualifying was a bit messy especially in Q3 the lap I did was pretty good but I would have liked a tow had on the way to the finish line. We were a bit slow on the straights, but so be it.”
The Dutchman never managed to make a second run in Q3 due to the red flag waved after Tsunoda’s crash. Sin, he judges himself. “I was really confident that we could definitely fight for pole position. During the weekend, but also during qualifying itself, I thought that. After I couldn’t practice my fast lap in the third practice, I had to slowly build up the speed in qualifying. That went well, but in Q3 we were unhappy”
However, third place is not the end of the world, the Red Bull driver also knows, who wants to make up for two places on Sunday. “We can fight from third place. I think we have a good race car and here in Azerbaijan it’s mainly about the tires, we have to keep them alive. That seemed to work well in the training sessions, so I’m looking forward to the race,” said Verstappen, who says he was not seriously affected by his crash in the third practice session.
“No,” he answers when asked. “Maybe in Q1 a little bit. Then you have to get a little feel for your braking points on the soft tyres, but I hadn’t used them on Saturday. However, from Q2 I just felt comfortable, so I don’t think the crash in the training has worked against me a lot.”
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