Verstappen states that his Red Bull is "a lot nicer to drive"
On the back of a strong qualifying result on Saturday, reigning champion Max Verstappen stated that his RB21 has been “a lot nicer to drive” at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya than in previous rounds.
Max Verstappen looked strong on Friday, and he seemed to make a step forward overnight. However, it was still not enough to beat the McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
In the end, the reigning champion lapped in exactly the same time as his Mercedes rival George Russell, and grabbed P3 by dint of setting his lap time fractions earlier.
Speaking of his qualifying performance, Verstappen was left to hail his RB21 which has been “a lot nicer to drive” at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“In the end, P3 was a good result for us as our first run in Q3 was a bit difficult. I couldn’t find the same grip as I had before so, going into the final lap, getting our references were a bit difficult.
"The positive is that the car was a lot nicer to drive and in a decent window but we couldn’t really extract any more out of it and match the McLarens’ pace.
Verstappen continued: “We were just not fast enough out there: the gap to McLaren is quite big at the moment which will make things difficult to gain places tomorrow and we will just need to do our own race.
"Today, I didn’t expect to be any closer and we did a good job putting it in P3. We will try our best tomorrow and see what we can do with the car and hopefully we can target a podium. It will be difficult but doesn’t mean we won’t try."
