Verstappen wasn’t sure whether he “could keep the McLaren behind”

On the back of a sensational victory in the Spa F1 Sprint, reigning champion Max Verstappen was left to praise Red Bull for the battery management that helped him keep the faster McLarens at bay.

Red Bull had opted for a skinny rear wing for the Sprint, and it proved a masterstroke. With better straight line speed than McLaren, Verstappen was able to overtake Oscar Piastri on the opening lap. From there, the Dutchman drove perfectly to keep the arguably faster McLarens at bay as he took the Sprint win.

However, the Dutch driver was left to rue his laps in the standard qualifying session after he was unable to split the McLaren, and got beaten by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as well.

“It was amazing to get the Sprint win here today and finishing P1 at my favourite track is always great. It was good for us to have the top speed advantage that we had; I wasn’t sure if we could keep the McLarens behind but we didn’t make many mistakes and had really good battery management.

“It was a nice surprise, we worked really well as a Team and it was a good boost for everyone today going into the rest of the weekend."

Despite his success in the 100km dash, he struggled to fight for pole position in the standard qualifying session, and ended up fourth behind the two McLarens and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

“For Qualifying, honestly, I was hoping for a little bit more. For some reason in Q3 I just didn’t have the same grip and feeling in the car. I was hoping that the set up that we had would help the driving feeling, but this wasn’t the case and the balance wasn’t where we wanted it to be.

“I felt like I couldn’t push the car to the limit and attack the corners how I like, which you really need to do here in Spa. I had a wheel spin on the last corner of the first lap and, on the second lap, I was down on my lap time already on turn one which wasn’t ideal."

Signing off with a word for the race, Verstappen noted: “We were pretty close to the McLarens, so it was a shame to finish P4 as we were at least hoping to be P3.

“Fighting for the win will be tough as both McLarens will still be fast in the wet, so we don’t expect any miracles. We want to fight back for a podium and lot could happen in the race with the weather."