Last year, around this time, Max Verstappen qualified fourth in his debut for Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix, now this year his fifth but half a second closer to the top time suggesting that red Bull have made a decent leap with their latest upgrades.
Speaking to media after qualifying in Barcelona, “We went forward. Before qualifying we were still a bit in search of the right balance with the new upgrades, but in qualifying we were really spot on. It was by far the best Saturday afternoon that I’ve had this season. I am really happy. It was a good qualifying.”
“When you think where we’ve come from, to now be behind by less than six-tenths, that’s a massive step forward. Now we have to keep on pushing on the car side and await what comes from the engine side. Unfortunately we cannot control that. But definitely things look much more positive at the moment.”
“The car is in a much better balance from the entry to the exit of a corner. Before we were struggling in certain phases – that is all history now. It is much more stable and you can push much more. Now we have a basis we really can start to work on. If you look at the last sector, I was third quickest – that is pretty cool news!”
Where we’ve been was not really satisfactory for a team like Red Bull. To make a much slower car faster when the gap is significant is not such a big deal – now it will get tricky to close the gap of these six-tenths.”
“That is hard work. But I feel that there is still a huge potential in the car that can be unlocked. But much will depend on the engine, as we know that Mercedes and Ferrari can turn up their engine in qualifying as they please. And that is what we can’t do.
“We are always better in the race, but whether we are really able to challenge these two, that is too early to say. We have to be patient until [race day]. The step that we did is massive. We can be really happy with that. And I definitely believe now that we will never go to a track and be over a second behind as happened in Sochi,” added the prodigious teenager.
At last year’s race in Barcelona, Verstappen made history by taking advantage of a Mercedes collision, on the opening lap, and powered to a famous victory which is now part of Formula 1 folklore.
Big Question: Can Max shock the world again and win in Spain again?
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
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