How did Gianpiero Lambiase contribute to Verstappen's magical pole lap in Jeddah qualifying?
On the back of his sensational pole position in yesterday's qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, reigning champion Max Verstappen has revealed that his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase made the final decision to complete two push laps despite the restricted time period in Q3.
Following a tough Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull have turned their weekend around in style. Max Verstappen already showed signs of competitiveness across the Friday practice sessions, confirming that the high-speed corners of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit suit his RB21 much more than the traction-dominated Sakhir track.
The reigning champion was right in the mix all through Qualifying, and he started more and more comfortable in his RB as the track surface constantly cooled down. The Dutchman went for two runs after the Q3 red flag, and it proved a masterstroke, his second lap was good enough to take his 46th career pole position.
His team mate Yuki Tsunoda was impressive through the first two qualifying segments, but he could not put it together in the final qualifying session, and the Japanese ended up ninth on the grid.
Reflecting on his car's balance during the race weekend in Jeddah, Verstappen said: "You just keep on trying to fine-tune before qualifying to find that perfect balance. We tried a lot of setup directions again this weekend, and I think we chose the right one going into qualifying.
"Then it's just fine-tuning. We are learning. We are trying to understand our car a lot better because it has been more hit and miss than we’d have liked so far this year.
"So a positive that we did get it right here. With the crash, the only thing it meant was that you had to change your approach. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. At the end of the day, GP said let’s fuel it for two laps.
"So you do the first lap on the used out-lap tyre, then pit and go onto the new. You carry more fuel, so you’re a bit slower on the first time. But it was the right call. It was definitely the right thing to do for me in terms of feeling with the car and building up to the limit.
Asked about the Jeddach Corniche Circuit, the Dutchman said: "Yeah. It is a very tough track, honestly. Every time you go out, it’s a bit like Monaco, but much more high-speed, where you go out and you’re like ‘let’s get ready to send it’ whereas some other tracks it happens a bit more naturally.
"It requires big commitment from every driver to try to be as close to the walls at the apex, on entry, exit. But it is very enjoyable to drive.
After McLaren had been on a different level compared to its direct rivals across the practice sessions, Red Bull and Mercedes managed to close the gap for the all-important qualifying session. Verstappen indicated that while he made a few improvements to the setup of his car, the cooler asphalt temperatures also contributed to the improved competitiveness.
"The main differences were yesterday where we tried a lot of things. Today, we chose the set-up that we thought was the right way forward here. From FP3 to qualifying was more like tiny adjustments. The gap in FP3 was massive. When the track is really hot, all the other teams except McLaren are lacking a lot of pace. Our tyres overheat more than theirs, and we can't keep it as well under control as them.
"Every car is a bit better in different areas. Sometimes it's better in high-speed, medium-speed, low-speed, rough surface, smooth surface. This definitely is a bit better for our car.
"I just want to learn more about the car. If I keep doing the same thing every weekend with the issues we have, you're not learning anything. Some things work, some don’t. You note everything down and continue to find different things. That’s what we did again today.
Despite his pole position, Verstappen fears that he will not be able to keep up with the field-leading McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris based on Friday's long run simulation.
"I haven’t said what I tested I used. I don’t know. Our long runs haven’t been great so far. Naturally, with how the car was reacting today, it will be a bit better. But I don’t think it’ll be enough to be super competitive, especially on the Medium. I don’t know on the Hard, I haven’t touched it.
"It just shows that when it gets a bit warmer, like FP3, that’s where we are really lacking. In the race, you stabilise with a high temperature, and that’s where in general most teams are struggling more. That will be the same tomorrow. Let’s see how good or bad we’ll be.
