F1 | Max Verstappen: “We knew we had to start like this, but we did a good job”

“We knew before qualifying that we had to start like this tomorrow, but I think so far everything has gone better than expected,” Max Verstappen immediately began, commenting on his Saturday qualifying, aware of having to start from the back of the grid together with his teammate to a power unit change on his Red Bull.

“We did a good job in Q1 which I'm happy with. The car ran well all weekend, except this morning, when I had some problems, but we managed to turn the situation around and we are competitive again. We are closer than expected, what we lose on the straights, we can definitely make up for in the corners. Even though we had good pace today, I don't think it's too painful for us to take penalties here. We needed a new engine anyway, so it's good for the next races to bring it straight away,” continued the Red Bull driver.

“The performances we had today show once again that we have worked very well on the set-up. From the third round to qualifying we made good steps forward, so I'm confident for tomorrow. We just need to make sure we have good exits in the last corners and keep our tires alive, because getting the pass will not be easy on the tyres. If you follow the other cars closely, it is difficult for the front tires, so we have to consider the best approach,” concluded Verstappen analyzing his race tomorrow