Lewis Hamilton described Max Verstappen’s margin over the field in qualifying as “pretty impressive”, as no one got within eight tenths of a second of the Red Bull driver.
Verstappen will start Sunday’s grand prix from sixth on the grid as he has a penalty for exceeding his allocation of gearbox parts. Hamilton, who qualified fourth, will start third.The Mercedes driver said the session was “definitely very hectic” as the track dried throughout the three parts of qualifying.
“It was very slippery at the beginning and difficult to see,” he explained. “[You’re] just maximising because you know that every lap is going to be faster than the next lap. So making sure you’re just out, that’s why we were at the end of the pit lane each session. The team did a great job in getting us out and quick turn-around.
Verstappen said he took more risk on his final lap as the track dried out. “It’s more about not actually finding the limit, because then it’s very easy to make a mistake and hit the wall, it’s all about just trying to leave your margins and just build up to it, basically,” he explained.
“But it seemed like it was a bit tougher today, I think also because the sun was out at one point, so the track was drying really quickly, lap after lap.”
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“It’s quite hectic out there,” he added. “It’s still only one dry line, in some places you’re still not even doing the full dry line. So it felt alright but honestly I didn’t know where I was until I looked on the screens.
However he believes part of the reason he ended up so far ahead of his rivals was that he completed his final lap in Q3 later than most of them, when the track was at its best.
“Honestly, I do know that we have a very good car,” said Verstappen. “But I think it’s more just having a bit more luck with the line or the grip. I think if it would have been a full dry qualifying, I think the gap wouldn’t have been like this.”
Verstappen said he took more risk at Bruxelles and the following turn of Speaker’s Corner on his final lap. “I was incredibly slow there before because I had a few moments,” he admitted. “I almost crashed in [turn] nine in Q2.
“Even in Q3, my first run, I was very slow there. So then on my second attempt I just went a lot faster there.”
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2023 Belgian Grand Prix
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melanos
28th July 2023, 23:23
Really happy with the result when it’s almost a second from the winner?!?
Well, there’s a word for that
IPBA
28th July 2023, 23:46
Well go on we know your itching to have dig at him. If he complains the car is not where it should be people like you criticise him. If he says he is satisfied given the car he has underneath him he is criticised. Good thing he does not pay attention to the tongues of his detractors constantly saying something negative about him.
Alex (@)
29th July 2023, 8:54
I think he’s being deliberately upbeat here (which I applaud – you have to stay positive, and in the past when he’s been fed up, it’s hit his performance).
Inside he must be aware that with Max taking a penalty, pole was up for grabs here; and finishing 0.099s off (one tenth) must be agonising. Plus that he’d be within one tenth of pole and still on the second row.
That said, drying tracks are always a banana skin for the top teams, and coming through that to end near the front is still a result. He’ll back himself to give Leclerc something to think about.