The Dutch driver will start the Mexico City GP from third place, one of the best spots to start at the track due to the slipstream effect from the cars ahead on the long run down to turn 1.
In spite of the speed shown so far, leading all three practice sessions before qualifying, in the final segment the Ferrari drivers managed to sign faster laps than him, as he was struggling with the balance of his car.
Verstappen explained that he had troubles in the final sector that prevented him from displaying his full potential, as he said after the session:
“It’s very difficult, you know. It’s very low grip around here, of course, because of the altitude. So when you try to push a little bit more, it just tries to go away from you. And I think that happened a little bit in Q3, where we just couldn’t put it together, especially also the last sector seemed like we’re struggling a little bit more than I would have liked.
“But nevertheless, it was still close and it’s still a very long race and a lot of laps to be raced and that’s where, of course, you score the points,” he added hopefully.
The fastest drivers in Mexico yesterday were the Ferraris, much to everyone’s surprise. The championship winner as well admitted to being impressed by the pace shown in Q3 by Leclerc and Sainz:
“Yeah, it’s always difficult to tell, you know? I’m not part of their team, so I don’t know what’s going on. But I personally just expected it to be a little bit better in evolution through Qualifying from our side. And I think that’s what we were lacking a little bit.”
The Dutch driver also recounted his own experience in more detail, highlighting the aspects that discomforted him the most:
“Q1 was okay, Q2 wasn’t too bad but then it just seemed to fall away from us, like the improvements were not big enough, coming into Q3. But this track is also extremely difficult in qualifying, to basically almost hit the perfect lap.
“Because it’s so low grip, if you tried to push a little bit more, you might overheat the tyres, or you have a little slide. And that’s, I think, what happened to me today, where I tried to find a little bit more time, but then the balance wasn’t exactly there.
“Then you’re sliding, you overheat your tyres, and in the last sector you have no tyres left. That’s basically a bit what I think happened. Yeah, it’s just this track is very, very difficult to put a perfect lap together,” he stressed the difficulty of the Mexican track and altitude.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Asked about his pace in the second sector and if, in his opinion, the issues encountered in the final corners happened due to overexerting his tyres before, the three times World Champion mentioned instead that he didn’t have the most confidence in his car in that part of the track.
“I still felt quite bad in the middle sector, I was sliding around quite a bit. So again, yeah, I tried to get a bit of time back. My first sector wasn’t probably ideal, I improved a bit but not enough. But it’s just feeling, and then around here when you slide a bit too much, like I said, it doesn’t come together.
“And when it’s so tight, you know, one or two tenths can be easily found or lost, and I think that’s what happened in qualifying.”
After what could be called a challenging qualifying for the Red Bull driver, he feels much more confident in his race pace for tomorrow, considering he also has two fresh sets of tyres that the other top contenders for the win don’t have:
“I feel good, I also have two hard tyres. So, nobody else has them, really, around me. That’s also maybe an advantage for tomorrow. But yeah, again, I mean, a lot can happen into Turn 1 already.”
There was a peculiar moment in Q1, which saw Verstappen being investigated for stopping at the pit lane exit in order to secure himself a gap to the car ahead. He wasn’t the only one set to visit the stewards for such a matter, as Alonso and Russell as well were put under investigation.
Ultimately, he wasn’t penalised for it, and he was able to explain his point of view to the press as well:
“Just everyone is trying to make a gap. I saw a car passing five cars behind me, and then he tried to pass me as well, but I’m just trying to make a gap out of the pitlane. That’s basically what everyone has been doing, so I’m surprised that…
“Yeah, I’m quite surprised. Normally, I think, everyone should then be called up for impeding because everyone, with this new rule, is driving very slowly in the pit lane. I don’t think I did anything weird or wrong.”
Verstappen called for action on the matter of this issue, caused by the recently introduced rule on the delta out lap time:
“I think it’s all imperfect at the moment. So, we need to come up with something else, but it’s hard. The thing I don’t understand is like, everyone is trying to make a gap now in the pit lane, which is the only place where we can do so.
“So, I don’t really understand how you can be impeding someone. This is for me, I think we have to be a little bit more lenient with that, knowing that it’s a safe environment. I mean, we’re driving really slow, it’s the only place where we can make a gap because we drive out of the box and, of course, we in the beginning of the pit-lane, we didn’t know, of course, what other people are doing.
“So, you are constantly then trying to judge a gap. You don’t want to start a lap within three four seconds of someone, because that’s really bad for following. But, on the other hand, if we wouldn’t have had this kind of minimum lap time, then maybe you have some impeding into the last sector again, so it’s just all quite tough, I guess, to find a good compromise,” he concluded, not completely satisfied with how the situation was dealt.
