Max Verstappen said his qualifying performance at the Circuit of the Americas was one of his worst so far this year.
The Red Bull driver qualified sixth and will take a 15-place grid penalty for a power unit change. However he said he should have been on a par with the Ferrari of vSebastian Vettel, which qualified second.
“I made some mistakes in Q3, it’s simple as that,” said Verstappen. “I should have been with Sebastian.”
“It’s easy to say now I should have been there but if you make two resaonsably big mistakes, it’s not what you want.”
“Of course I’m not happy with myself and I think this was definitely one of the worst qualifyings of the year for me.”
“It was tricky out there,” Verstappen explained. “You try a little be more in the last run, you have a little moment, then the next corner is not great, it’s basically ruined.”
“In the next sector you try to recover a little bit of the lost lap time and you lock up again. So not ideal.”
Verstappen used super-soft tyres in Q2 which means he will start on them in tomorrow’s race as he bids to catch up with the leaders from the lap of the grid. However he doubts he’ll be able to catch up to the top five drivers.
“The first few laps you normally lose quite a lot of seconds on them,” he said. ” So we’ll see. I’ll try to at least come up to sixth.”
Kingshark (@kingshark)
21st October 2017, 23:51
Still only 0.081s slower than Ricciardo, when (at his best) he’s put 0.500 seconds on Ricciardo around circuits like Spa.
Shows just what a monster he is. He has the highest ceiling of any driver I’ve ever seen.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
22nd October 2017, 0:15
But he’s a bit like Hamilton, with occasional off days which allowed Ric to beat him marginally at times
James
22nd October 2017, 1:02
I think Hamilton is more consistent, even thinking of 2007. Doesn’t mean Verstappen won’t settle down, but he seems to have a pretty big ego, so I’m curious to see where he’s gonna go.
baasbas
22nd October 2017, 15:16
Not disagreeing on the ‘more consistent’ statement, but I have to ask: a pretty big ego? Really? Care to explain?
As33
22nd October 2017, 10:56
Riccardio is a much finer driver than Bottas and Rosberg too. What Verstappen has done to him in qualifying and the last two races is crazy!!
MG1982 (@mg1982)
22nd October 2017, 8:56
Nope. You simply cannot make a general statement based on particular cases. Spa and the 0.5 difference is a particular case. It can happen.
Mobsta
21st October 2017, 23:57
Ric better today, so Max must give a reason why….
Hammerheadshark
22nd October 2017, 0:12
Have you ever thought that those 5 tenths are because of Ricciardo making mistakes? or that Ricciardo may have also made mistakes in Q3 and just never mentioned them?
Verstappen is brilliant for sure, highest ceiling of any driver? I agree to disagree.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
22nd October 2017, 1:04
@kingshark I don’t recall Dan saying that was his best qualifying performance so no doubt Ric made mistakes as well and had several tenths on the table if he did the perfect lap.
Max also had a 0.2 sec advantage over Dan with the new Renault engine and still failed to beat his teammate. Ric did a better job today and Max tried too hard. Both drivers are incredibly close when it comes to talent.
Melchior (@)
22nd October 2017, 8:13
@homerlovesbeer.I agree.Generally the two of them qualify very close together like in the 100th’s of a second for the most part but definitely Max is extremely quick and probably quicker than Dan but of course i believe that Dan tends to be more consistent.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
22nd October 2017, 2:55
Ricciardo was quicker in Q2 as well, maybe Ricciardo has lifted his game in qualifying. Verstappen possibly made the ‘mistake’ because he feels under pressure to continue his run of being quicker in qualifying then Ricciardo.
Personally I don’t worry to much about the quallys, as long as your on the first three rows and you have a clean start your in with a shot.
Oh that reminds me Ricciardo does need to improve his starts a little.
Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
22nd October 2017, 6:23
That’s because Ricciardo qualified on Ultrasofts in Q2 while Max used Supersofts, there’s obviously bound to be a difference.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd October 2017, 7:43
Probably slightly disingenuous this, he’s been faster all weekend but Ricciardo got in a very good lap. Sometimes accept that.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
22nd October 2017, 9:08
Actually that’s not true. Dan was faster on the long runs on the preferred tyre for the race, the super soft.
ia
22nd October 2017, 15:06
I believe Ric has not out paced Max in a race yet.