"It was the maximum today", reckons Verstappen
Having complained about lack of grip through the practice sessions, Max Verstappen reckons that his fifth spot in qualifying has been the absolute maximum he could have hoped for.
The reigning champion struggled for pace in the three practice sessions, but he looked a lot more comfortable in his RB20 in qualifying, managing to secure a fifth spot on the grid for tomorrow.
Commenting on his qualifying day in Nevada, the Dutch driver noted: "The day started off quite tough but we did our best and maximised everything that we could. The tyres are our main issue as we were struggling quite a lot with the grip throughout the day.
"Our long runs have not been that great and we were too slow on the straight. However, I think we did execute everything really well in qualifying and worked well as a Team. I am ultimately happy with how it went; I left everything out there and we ended up in P5.
"Everything looks a lot better than yesterday and hopefully with the things that we changed on the car, we are a bit more competitive tomorrow in the race. Let’s hope that the changes will make an impact and we can put together a good performance tomorrow."
His team-mate Sergio Perez endured a shock elimination in the first segment of the qualifying session. The Mexican could not pinpoint a specific issue on his flying laps, claiming that the general lack of grip has hampered his chances in qualifying.
“The whole weekend we have been struggling with the grip, it is weirdly difficult to put a lap together, with sliding and grip with the tyres. I did expect a very difficult qualifying and it turned out to be a very tricky one.
"We have been lacking a lot of low-speed performance and we haven’t been able to put the tyres in the right window, that was the main issue and has been very costly in this session. I wanted more today but the progress was not enough.
"Max managed to put a very good lap together and they seem to have found a bit of performance over one lap, whereas from our side we didn’t. I think it is going to be quite a tricky one tomorrow, I believe that our race pace is a lot more competitive than over one lap though so we should be able to come through the field," concluded the six-time F1 race winner.
Reflecting on the tricky qualifying session for his team, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has praised his team for finding improvements all through the race weekend following a very tough start to the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
"A tricky qualifying. The low temperatures and track are challenge with our tyres. Our performance has been improving with each session and we are starting to find where we have lost but the window for the tyres is still quite small.
"Max managed to lay down a good time and I know he was hoping to be higher up the grid but this track, you can definitely overtake at and the way the tyres behave between qualifying and the race are totally different challenges, anybody in the top four rows can win this race and it will be very exciting to see how it plays tomorrow."
