Red Bull’s reigning champion, Max Verstappen, will start the F1 Chinese GP from the second row after qualifying in P4.
Verstappen couldn’t quite replicate his Sprint qualifying result from Friday, which saw him start the Sprint Race from P2, which turned into P3 at the end of that.
Crucially, Verstappen finished the Sprint race ahead of Norris, bringing him just 2 points shy of the Championship lead.
On his final run, Verstappen’s fastest time, a 1:30.817, meant that he only fell two hundredths of a second short of P3 on the grid.
Thus, the Dutchman will start the Chinese GP from the second row, just behind title-rival Lando Norris in P3.
Qualifying performance
Speaking in the print media area after qualifying for the F1 Chinese GP, Max Verstappen notes that while his lap was “alright,” it does not represent the gap Red Bull has to the front runners.
“It was alright, but just a little bit too slow to really be up there. I mean, the gap looks quite close, but I honestly don’t think that’s a realistic gap.”
On the gap to McLaren, he added:
“Bigger than what it is at the moment.”
The reigning Champion and title contender believes he has extracted the maximum out of his Red Bull so far, trying to help the team enhance their package.
“I just focus on myself, honestly.
“I just try to at least make sure that I can’t be upset with myself in terms of performances.
“So, I’m just trying to maximise everything I can, try to help the team to improve the car.
“So that’s what we focus on.”
Expecting tyre-deg in the race
The 27-year-old encountered heavy tyre degradation towards the closing stages of the Sprint race as George Russell and Charles Leclerc got quite close.
As a result of it, the reigning champion had to concede his position to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri as well on lap 15.
Verstappen believes that he could encounter similar issues during Sunday’s race, despite Red Bull making changes ahead of qualifying to address the issue.
“Yeah, I don’t think the track will improve that much over a day.
“That will still be very tough to manage.
“Now, we made a few changes, I hope that it’s going to be a little bit better, but I don’t expect it to be a night and day difference in terms of actually being able to keep up with the cars ahead.
“We’ll find out.”
Verstappen on the RB21
The Red Bull star notes that while the RB21 shows improvement over its predecessor, it’s not where the Champion wants it to be.
“It’s clearly better than last year, but it still looks like it’s not there.
“Yeah, it’s still not where I want it to be.
“It’s difficult to put a number on it or a percentage, but it’s clear that it’s still not where we want it to be.”
