Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Albert Park, 2019

Verstappen pleased to split Ferraris after “perfect” qualifying

2019 Australian Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen says his qualifying session went perfectly after his problems during practice.

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The Red Bull driver was unable to do a race simulation yesterday which meant he had to devote some of the final practice session to working on his long-run pace.

But he bounced back in qualifying and took fourth on the grid, splitting the Ferrari drivers.

“We have been playing around a lot with the set-up, trying different things,” Verstappen explained. “Some worked, some didn’t, clearly in the morning for example. [I’m] very happy with fourth in qualifying.”

“In qualifying I would say it was quite a perfect session in terms of what we could do with the performance we had,” he added. “But the whole run-up to it wasn’t.”

He said he got the most out of the car on his final lap. “I literally took everything out of it.”

Verstappen believes Red Bull still has work to do optimising the set-up of the Honda power unit it is using for the first time this year. “I don’t know what is the right set-up yet,” he admitted.

While his best effort was eight-tenths of a second shy of Lewis Hamilton’s pole position, Verstappen believes the Albert Park track plays to Mercedes’ strengths.

“We all know that this is quite a strong track for them anyway,” he said. “So they’ve been really quick.”

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2019 F1 season

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17 comments on “Verstappen pleased to split Ferraris after “perfect” qualifying”

  1. GPfan
    16th March 2019, 10:03

    I thought you guys were ahead of Mercedes….. what happened to that?

  2. Markos
    16th March 2019, 10:04

    I expect he will be able to challenge the Ferraris on race pace. Let’s hope both RB and Ferrari will be closer to Mercedes in the race, or it will be an old fashioned Merc 1-2.

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      F1oSaurus (@)
      16th March 2019, 12:42

      An old fashioned Merc 1-2 like last year?

      1. Markos
        16th March 2019, 17:05

        Figure of speech ;-)

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    Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
    16th March 2019, 10:10

    Max could unintentionally become Mercedes’ best friend if he continues to disrupt Ferrari’s plans over the course of the season (as long as he doesn’t jump them too of course!)

    *obligatory disclaimer about the season being too young to make such calls

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    David BR (@david-br)
    16th March 2019, 11:47

    Both Horner and Verstappen seem to be (a bit weirdly) downplaying Mercedes’ pace. Seems to be a big bubble of hubris in the Red Bull garage ready to pop. Given where Gasly ended up, you’d think they should be focusing on their own team as a priority.

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      Robbie (@robbie)
      16th March 2019, 13:23

      Right because they can’t comment on Mercedes and focus on themselves at the same time? I think splitting the Ferraris on their first quali session with this brand new marriage is pretty good focus. Gasly will have better days given that the car so far appears to be half decent.

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        BasCB (@bascb)
        16th March 2019, 22:05

        I agree there @robbie. It was really the best kind of start they could have hoped for as far as what the car can do for a hot lap. And surely everyone will have been asking about splitting the Ferraris.

        I am sure Red Bull would be happy to avoid talking too much about how they messed up with Gasly and their strategy for qualifying. But Max really had nothing to do with that, so it’s not even a relevant question to this article honestly.

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    BlueChris (@bluechris)
    16th March 2019, 13:42

    I wait patiently tomorrow to see if he has matured a bit in the winder and he is starting to see the bigger picture in a championship run thru a season.
    I say this because behind him is Leclerc who will not lift like others when he will do his defensive tactics. I hope for both a clean race.
    My mind is telling me that after the 1st turn the order will be

    1. Hamilton
    2. Vettel
    3. Bottas
    4. Leclerc
    5. Verstapen

    I say the above because i believe that Ferrari are great starters.

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      Patrick (@anunaki)
      16th March 2019, 14:41

      I consider Max a great starter as well. Hopefully he can overtake bottas

      1. Markos
        16th March 2019, 16:36

        1. Hamilton
        2. Verstappen
        3. Vettel
        4. Bottas
        5. Leclerc

  6. Chaitanya
    16th March 2019, 13:52

    Both crash prone drivers next to each other for start of race, what could possibly go wrong?

    1. Markos
      16th March 2019, 16:35

      Leclerc and Grosjean you mean? Yes, that will end in tears for sure.

      1. Chaitanya
        16th March 2019, 16:49

        Also both drivers on 2nd row of grid.

        1. Markos
          16th March 2019, 17:03

          Have you watched Verstappen the 2nd half of last season? Risky? Yes. Crash prone? No.

          1. Chaitanya
            17th March 2019, 3:58

            This is the same person who has a problem with red mist when a backmarker tries to unlap and then crashes into backmarker throwing away a sure win.

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    Balue (@balue)
    16th March 2019, 17:38

    Best qualifying lap looked like. Awesome recovery splitting the Ferrari.

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