After a dominant performance during the 2024 United States Grand Prix Sprint Race, which saw him across the line 3.882 seconds ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and 6.240 seconds ahead of close title rival Lando Norris of McLaren Racing, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen views his second place starting position for Sunday’s race as being “unfortunate”.
Despite setting promising times in the first and second sectors of his first lap in the third qualifying session, he underperformed in the final sector as he made a mess of turn 19. Ultimately, Norris would hold on to pole position, as while Verstappen had appeared to be on a strong second lap by going purple in sector 1, he was unable to complete it after double waved yellow flags were brought out in the last minute of the session after Mercedes’ George Russell’s crash into the barriers at Turn 19.
During his track interview after the qualifying session, Verstappen admitted that he had lost some time during his first run in Q3 after a small mistake in Turn 19 and described the incident as being “unfortunate.”
“Yeah, on the first lap in Q3, I lost quite a bit of time there. So, yeah, that’s unfortunate.”
He added that he had aimed to improve his lap time on his second run and stated that it was unfortunate that he had not been able to finish the lap as he believed that he had had a good chance to reclaim pole position.
“But then, I knew that we had another run, but unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the lap. Otherwise, I think we had a really good shot.”
Despite his disappointment, the Dutchman expressed optimism over his performance, stating that his front-row starting position showed that Red Bull had the potential to be the best-performing team on the grid. This, he deemed a “very good” sign for the team.
“But that’s how it goes. We’re still on the front row at least. The potential was there, you know, to be first so that’s very good.”
The Red Bull driver added that he believed that Red Bull had been competitive throughout the weekend, as shown through his win in the sprint race, and stated that the team had made minor changes to the RB20 which had increased his comfort with it. He added that he hoped that their renewed competitiveness and the changes made would allow him to have a positive result from Sunday’s race.
“Yeah, it seemed that we were competitive, so we made some minor changes on the car which felt again nice, and I hope that that will be also positive for tomorrow.”
Later, during the United States Grand Prix Post-Qualifying Press Conference, Verstappen was again asked about his aborted second Q3 lap. The Dutchman stated that he believed that he had been “a good amount up” and highlighted that had he not made the mistake that he had during his first lap, he would have likely claimed pole position.
“Yeah, I mean, I was a good amount up, but already my first lap in Q3, I missed Turn 19. So I don’t know what happened there. I just turned in, probably a bit late, tried to carry a bit more speed. But then, of course, when you’re late, you end up really wide. So I had to downshift one more time. So I lost quite a bit of lap time there.
“That would have already been enough for pole.”
He added that he believed that he would have been able to find the time that he had lost in Turn 19, but stated that the events that had occurred, and subsequently resulted in him being unable to improve his lap time, were simply a risk of the unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of qualifying.
“So I knew that the second lap, you know, there was time to find, for free, but never really got to that corner.
“So, I mean, that happens, you know, in qualifying, it’s not always in your control.”
The Red Bull driver reiterated that his team’s performance at the Circuit of the Americas had been positive throughout the weekend, and highlighted his ability as being able to fight for pole position after struggling in recent races as an optimistic sign.
“I think in general, though, for us, this whole weekend so far has been a lot more positive. We could at least fight for pole and that has been a while.”
He summarised that he was happy with his performance overall but denied any frustration, reiterating that his missing out on pole position was something that “just happens in qualifying.”
“I’m overall happy. I’m not frustrated. I mean, this just happens in qualifying.”
The three-time world champion, who has won the last three feature races of the United States Grand Prix, was also asked whether he felt more confident than he had in Singapore. While Verstappen did not directly state whether he had or was lacking confidence, he did admit that he had felt “quite decent” during Saturday’s sessions and stated that he was hopeful that recent changes made to the RB20 would help his performance during Sunday’s race.
“I mean, I felt quite decent today.
“We made a few changes on the car and hopefully that will help again for the race. And then hopefully we can try and do the same.”
When asked to give further details about the improvements made to the RB20 since Singapore, Verstappen highlighted the improved stability of the car as the main improvement. However, he stated that Red Bull never performed strongly in Singapore as the circuit did not suit their car and added that the team, in addition to their updates, benefited from the “very different track layout” at the Circuit of the Americas.
“I mean, first of all, Singapore has never been a good track for us. All the low-speed corners and the bumps. Our car just doesn’t really work on that.
“So it’s a very different track layout.
“Plus, I think we made the car more stable. So you can attack corners a bit better. And that then also helps, I think, the tyres out a bit. So I think that has been the main improvement.”
Verstappen also expressed that he believed that tyres would play a significant role in determining the outcome of the race, replying “always” when asked if he thought that tyres would be the main talking point of the race. The Red Bull driver did not, however, elaborate on this point.
