Verstappen reveals what he wants to achieve at the Hungaroring at his 200th F1 race

Hot on the heels of his Saturday's sprint victory and a disappointing race at Spa-Francorchamps, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has set his sights on finding a good balance for his car as he expects the qualifying session to play a race-deciding role at the Hungaroring.
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.
With heavy rain forecast for the race, Red Bull elected to run Verstappen’s car with more downforce. However, it didn’t pay off as the majority of the grand prix was run in dry conditions.
Although Verstappen looked very competitive in the damp conditions in the opening stages of the race, he was unable to overtake Leclerc, finishing down in fourth spot.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda endured a difficult race on Sunday. The Japanese driver delivered his best qualifying performance at Red Bull on Saturday, but he spent the majority of race in traffic, and could not capitalize on a potential early switch from intermediates to slick tyres.
In the end, the Sagamihara-born driver finished down in P13, extending his pointless streak to five races.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen claims he wants to focus on fine-tuning his RB21 to come up with a good balance for the qualifying session that usually plays a critical role at the Hungaroring.
"We head into Hungary this week and it is my 200th race with the Team so it is great to take time to look back at all the successes we have achieved as a Team and look ahead to the future as well.
"This is the final push before summer break, where the Team can recover and recharge a bit before the second half of the season. Spa ended up being a bit disappointing for us; we set up for a wet race and ultimately did not drive a wet race, but we will take learnings from the race and try to improve and keep working at our performance.
"The Hungaroring hasn’t always been our strongest track. I like the technical second sector but it is, of course, difficult to overtake so we will need to make sure we have a good qualifying session and it is very important there to find the right balance of the car," concluded Verstappen.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda claims that he has gained more confidence behind the wheel of his RB21 at Spa-Francorchamps after having received a floor update.
"I am looking forward to getting back in the car this weekend. Things felt really positive during and after Qualifying with the updated floor on the car.
"The race didn’t go to plan, but the performance I felt in the car has given me confidence moving into the final race before summer break. We are working well as a Team, we have some things to work on to get us to the next level.
"This weekend is all about getting consistency in performance across all the sessions to send us into the break well," concluded Tsunoda.