Red Bull’s Max Verstappen came out on top yet again at Interlagos, setting the fastest time just before a storm hit the circuit, forcing all the drivers to retreat to the pit lane.
Verstappen shared his perspective on the chaotic Q3 segment from the Safety Car garage, where the top three drivers took shelter for their post-qualifying interviews. The Dutch driver admitted that he was surprised to find his flying lap was enough to secure pole for Sunday’s race.
“Charles [Leclerc] and I were just discussing—our laps, they felt terrible!” Verstappen said. “But I don’t know, the wind started to change and started to be very strong, and we lost a lot of lap time because of it, but it was all quite hectic in the last lap.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
“The gaps were very, very small between everyone. So yeah, through Q1, Q2, you could see that everyone was using a lot of tyre sets and that made it quite interesting, I think. And then, of course, we lined up to go out for Q3 and you could see the sky was just black,” he added at the post-qualifying press conference.
“And I was like, wow, if that rain hits it’s going to be a lot. So the out lap was quite quick and then we went for the lap, the first sector felt alright, and then the rest of the lap felt shocking.”
“So I think what happened, of course, throughout the lap was that the rain was coming in, it was not hitting the track yet, but the wind increased a lot. And it changed direction with a tailwind in the middle sector. And yeah, the car was just sliding all over the place.
“I was shouting on the radio, like, ‘what the hell happened?’ Like, you know, we are nowhere. But the team just told me to keep pushing because they said everyone was struggling out there. But I’ve never experienced something like that, that it’s such a big influence on car balance. But you could also see the weather incoming was quite extreme.”
Before the rain descended, Verstappen was heard complaining over team radio about how poorly his car reacted to the bumps on the track.
“Yeah, it was a bit difficult over the bumps. I don’t know why that was the case, because we didn’t really touch the car. And so we need to understand that because, yeah, on the bumps it was not very comfortable. But yeah, we tried to work our way around it,” the Dutch driver explained.
He added that he expected several other drivers to be in the fight for pole, had it not been for the severe weather conditions.
“The gaps were just very, very close. I think we were quite competitive. I think no one really knew who was going to be first in Q3 If it would have been a normal session without the weather incoming. But then that makes it quite interesting for Sunday as well, to see how everything will evolve with the long-run pace.”
“It depends on the wind direction as well, what we get tomorrow. But yeah, I think it will be close again. So we’ll see.”
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Pérez, was left disappointed after Oscar Piastri’s mistake compromised his Q3 run and dashed his hopes of achieving a better result.
Piastri ran off at Turn 12, forcing Pérez to slow under yellow flags. With the threat of rain imminent, Pérez was unable to go for another lap in hopes of improving his time; he will line up ninth on the grid on Sunday.
“We were just incredibly unlucky today, I should have been on the front row,” Pérez lamented. “My lap was very close to Max’s until the last corner. I found Piastri, so I had to back off my lap and it meant that I was just nowhere. Very unfortunate because I felt like we had a lot better today.”
On a more positive note, the Red Bull driver added that “there are some good points and good opportunities to race from here.”
