Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) set the third fastest time in the 2022 F1 Round 5 Miami GP qualifying. He said he was surprised to have a pole position battle as he missed most of Friday’s practice.
Max Verstappen had a provisional pole at the end of the first attack in qualifying Q3, but he made a mistake on turns 5-6 of the final attack and both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari. Dropped to 3rd place due to the improvement.
Max Verstappen’s second free practice session on Friday was delayed by a gearbox change and was limited to one lap throughout the session due to hydraulic problems, which led to time on the new Miami International Autodrome. He admits he didn’t expect to reach the pole position, given that he lost.
Max Verstappen managed to catch up on Saturday’s final practice, but Red Bull Racing believes it needs to avoid such mechanical problems in the future. Verstappen has retired twice this season in Bahrain and Australia.
“Overall, I’m pretty happy with the qualifying, because yesterday I literally only had four or five laps,” said Max Verstappen.
“So I was still trying to learn trucks throughout today, trying to find a decent balance in the car, and I was a little surprised that it was actually as competitive as in qualifying. It ’s not an easy track. ”
“I want to get a pole position, but given where we were, I think it did a really good job.”
“But we know that weekends are always tricky like this, so we need to reduce the difficulty of the weekends, but I think we have a good chance tomorrow.”
“The top speed is good and I think the car handling is pretty good, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Max Verstappen feels he has the opportunity to attack two Scuderia Ferraris in front of him at his first Grand Prix of Miami, a new circuit with unknown race conditions, both in race strategy and overtaking. I am optimistic that I have a choice.
“It’s pretty slippery outside the regular racing line, but I’m going to look at it,” said Max Verstappen.
“A lot of things can happen tomorrow. I think it will be even warmer than today, so I think it depends a bit on the behavior of the tires.”
Category: Category: F1 / Max Verstappen / Red bull / F1 Miami GP
