Red Bull driver Max Verstappen has admitted that he struggled to get the right balance of his car during the qualifying session in Bahrain
Reigning World champion Max Verstappen was edged out by Ferrari star Charles Leclerc, who will take pole position for the first race of the season. However, the Dutchman claims that he had a great chance of grabbing the top spot but missed out due to ‘inconsistencies’.
Nevertheless, Verstappen still believes that he can put up a strong fight against the Ferrari ahead of him. Verstappen finished P2, with Carlos Sainz in P3 and Sergio Perez in P4 followed by Lewis Hamilton.
“Was a bit of a struggle to get the balance together” – Max Verstappen speaks out following Qualifying
While speaking to reporters after the first qualifying session of the season, Verstappen remained confident of getting the race win despite starting from 2nd on the grid for Sunday. The defending champion had finished FP 2 and FP 3 at the top of the timesheets. He also managed to go quickest in Q2 but Leclerc got the better of Verstappen in Q3.
Red Bull were initially tipped as the pre-race favourites. But in Q3, Leclerc managed to finish more than one-tenth of a second ahead of Verstappen’s time.
Verstappen revealed that he struggled with the balance of his car in Q3 and hinted that it may have been because Red Bull were focused more on trying to get the win on Sunday rather than pole position on Saturday.
He said, “I always knew it was going to be very close. Q2 was quite good but in Q3 it was a bit more like a hit and miss, with not really getting the right balance, always a bit of oversteer, a bit of understeer, and then you can’t attack the corner like you really want.“
Verstappen concluded by stating that he was still happy with the Red Bull’s pace and sniffs the chance of a victory on Sunday. He also promised that it should be an exciting race being sandwiched by with the Ferrari drivers.
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