Max Verstappen says he is excited about the close race with the McLaren drivers after again outperforming both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the sprint at the US Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s resurgence since Monza continues, with Verstappen beating both McLarens in every qualifying session since taking pole position in Italy last month. This includes strong performances in Baku and Singapore, and after setting the fastest time in sprint qualifying, he expects to go head-to-head with the McLaren pair on Saturday.
“It was a great qualifying,” Verstappen said. “I think we were pretty close throughout all the segments. It’s just a matter of trying to put everything together at the last crucial moment, which is not easy because you go to soft compounds without any reference. But it worked out.”
“Still, we expect a tough battle in the sprint tomorrow. That’s exactly what we want to see, right? Excited for tomorrow and happy with today.”
“You can feel the wind going up and down, very strong winds. The track is also very bumpy, so cars can easily take off at high speeds. In qualifying like that, you have to leave some margin here and there. Still, I think for us it was another very good day.”
With Norris in second and Piastri in third, Verstappen says it could be important to keep them both behind him in the opening laps as COTA’s first corner will be difficult to defend.
“Just do your best and get off to a good start,” he said. “Turn 1 is also wide. I hope I can have a good pace in the race, but we’ll find out tomorrow.”
“(McLaren’s threat) is a big one. I mean, they’re super fast. We know that normally in a race they pick up speed little by little, so it’s going to be tough.”
The Dutchman was unhappy with the car’s handling in Friday’s FP1, but said Red Bull had made appropriate changes throughout the qualifying session and provided him with a car he was confident in.
“It was just a matter of understanding the course and making some tweaks,” he said. “Coming back, the course was even more bumpy, so it was very difficult to drive at times. We made some adjustments to the car and it was a little better in qualifying.”
“Going through the compound to the soft and only one last run. It was okay. It was good. I’m glad to be in first place. I’m very close to it. I expect it to be the same in tomorrow’s race.”
