Max Verstappen gives emphatic response to Christian Horner demand at Saudi GP
Max Verstappen delivered on Christian Horner's plea to focus on racing as the Red Bull star earned pole at the Saudi Grand Prix.
The Dutchman finished ahead of Charles Leclerc and teammate Sergio Perez and will now begin Saturday's race at the front of the grid. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, will start the race down in eighth, having complained over the team radio about a lack of grip.
And 18-year-old Brit Oliver Bearman came just 0.036s away from knocking Hamilton out of qualifying in Q2, having been drafted in to race for Ferrari at the last minute after Carlos Sainz underwent surgery for appendicitis, and the teenager will now start his first race in 11th.
It is Verstappen, however, who will enter tomorrow's race as the overwhelming favourite after a typically strong showing in qualifying. "It was a very good day," he said after securing his first ever pole in Jeddah.
"We improved the car a little bit overnight and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners and around here it depends a lot on your confidence level and how much you can go to the limit. Today I felt very comfortable in the car.
Greggs, Costa & Pret coffees have 'huge differences in caffeine', says report
"Throughout qualifying, it was pretty crazy how fast you go around here, In my first lap in Q3, I felt pretty happy with the lap. It felt almost a bit like the failed 2021 lap, except I made the last corner. It was very good. I had a lot of fun and the car behaved very well."
Verstappen comfortably won the opening race of the new season in Bahrain last week and his team principal Horner will be delighted with his showing, having insisted it is now "time to draw a line" under allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against him.
"Obviously there has been a lot of coverage surrounding this, but one has to go back to the basis of a grievance was raised, it was fully investigated, and it was dismissed," he said. "From there we move onwards.
Red Bull racing chief Christian Horner is keen to focus solely on racing (PA)"I think an awful lot has been made out of this. Obviously it has been of great interest in different elements of the media for different reasons. I think the time now is to look forward and draw a line under it.
"We are here to go racing, we are here as a Formula 1 team, and the time now is to focus on what is going on on track and the performance of the cars and the drivers, where the spotlight should be during the course of a Grand Prix weekend."
Fernando Alonso will start the race in fourth for Aston Martin, while the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris secured fifth and sixth spot respectively. George Russell will start in seventh, one place above his teammate Hamilton, with Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll rounding out the top ten.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
