Verstappen explains his faultless drive in thequaliying session at Baku
Having grabbed his first pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen revealed that the tricky conditions made things very complicated at Baku, with choosing the right tyre for the final run having been key to success.
Saturday's qualifying seemed to go on for ever, with a record number of red flags, plenty of yellow ones and a few drops of rain. It finally ended with yet another pole position for Max Verstappen, his very first fastest qualifying lap at this track.
It was only in the closing moments that the Red Bull driver managed to get under the 1m41.595s set by Williams’ Carlos Sainz, with a best time of 1m41.117s. This was Verstappen’s sixth pole of the season, his 46th in total. Red Bull Racing’s first pole in Baku was its 109th.
Williams driver Carlos Sainz will line up on the front row of the grid for the 15th time in his career, six of those being pole positions. Liam Lawson was third for Racing Bulls, his best ever qualifying, in a time of 1m41.707s. Alongside him will be Andrea Kimi Antonelli just one hundredth slower than the New Zealander.
Commenting on his sixth pole position of the season, Verstappen said: "I think it was just a very long qualifying in general with all the red flags, so you never got into a rhythm. Trying to complete laps was already difficult enough with what was going on. Getting the tyres in the window on your warm-up lap is very tough around here.
"Honestly, I was quite happy with how Q1 and Q2 went, but Q3 was a very long wait, and then choosing what tyres to use for the final run — there was a bit of rain around in places — so not easy at all. But in the end, very happy to sit here.
Pressed on to comment on he tricky conditions, Verstappen noted that the track is 'already hard enough without anything", which means that the drizzle made things extremely difficult in qualifying.
"I mean, this track is already hard enough without anything. With the strong winds that we had today, the car was moving around a lot — understeer, oversteer in different places, even on the straight, going left to right. So, to basically nail everything, but also then the big interruptions that we had, it was just very tricky today. But luckily, I think we did quite well.
Verstappen signed off: "Yeah, difficult to say at the moment. Of course, it’s a good starting position. We just have to try and do our own race, to be honest. Hopefully the car is kind on its tyres, that we can look after them, and just go from there."
