Max Verstappen said he was disappointed with the lack of grip on the Algarve circuit after being unable to improve on his Q1 lap time throughout qualifying.
The Red Bull driver took third on the grid despite lapping slower in Q2 and Q3 than he did in the first round.“The whole weekend has been really tricky with getting the tyres to work,” he said. “It’s not only tyres but also the Tarmac is very slippery and [there’s] just one line you can take.
“Overall it’s still good, of course, to be third but a bit confusing throughout qualifying. I did my fastest lap time in Q1 and after that I couldn’t replicate it just because I didn’t have the same grip.
“Of course the time runs down in Q2 and Q3, you have less time to do your laps. And it just seemed like it was a bit more difficult for us to to get the tyres in a better window even though I think in Q3 compared to Q2 it felt a bit better on that set of like one timed laps, the very first timed laps.”
Verstappen tested a GT car at the Portuguese circuit earlier in the year but said the track has become less enjoyable to drive because it has been resurfaced since then.
“For me it was personally not very enjoyable to drive at the moment with the tyres and grip on the track.
“I was here in January and I thought it was going to be amazing to drive a Formula 1 car. The scenery, everything is perfect. But the grip we have, for me personally, you can’t really push you’re just driving on ice. So it’s a bit of a shame.”
However Verstappen was encouraged by the relatively low gap between Red Bull and Mercedes.
“I think we were, again, very close,” he said. “It’s just a bit difficult to really judge, again, the performance because of tyres and grip.
“We have to go to a track where we have been driving before like the last few years and see where we are because we have a bit more knowledge there. These kind of events are sometimes hit or miss. Sometimes you can do them a bit better than others.
“But still to be third and be quite close to them is a good achievement, I think.”
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Steve (@scbriml)
24th October 2020, 18:16
Verstappen was complaining about a lack of grip all through qualy. I was surprised that Red Bull never tried the medium in Q2 or Q3. Given he managed to split the Mercedes until Hamilton finished his second hot lap on mediums, he might well have gone faster on mediums as well.
Now he starts the race on the tyre he’s been moaning about behind both Mercedes starting on the mediums. He will almost certainly have to pit before the Mercs and could be in for a long, lonely race.
Chaitanya
24th October 2020, 18:40
Lewis is also on compromised tyre set for the race. In Q2 Bottas only did 1 fast lap on his race tyres while Lewis had to do couple of extra laps just to scrape by which is quite similar to Sochi. Bottas unfortunately is on dirty side and if he can manage to keep a small gap(2-3secs) then he may be able to win by going longer on opening stint.
erikje
24th October 2020, 20:09
indeed. looking at the results in FP3 max did the fastest time on mediums. Even for a moment the fastest overall time ( time deleted track limits)
So at least they had a very good performance on mediums.
Looking at the Mercs and LEC it seems the mediums are the tire for this track on this new surface.