Max Verstappen described his pole position at the Italian Grand Prix as a major result for Red Bull, given the team’s struggle at the same venue last year.
Red Bull entered the Italian Grand Prix weekend and Verstappen was comfortably leading the championship, but the Dutchman qualified for the seventh time, 0.7 seconds away from pole position as he finished sixth in sixth and finished more than 30 minutes to race winner Charles Leclair. This time after winning pole on the fastest lap in Formula 1 history, Verstappen says he shows clear progress compared to last year’s struggle.
“That was good,” Verstappen said. “It’s always hard around here, it’s easy to drop and make mistakes with braking and entry.
“Getting a pole here is a big deal. Especially last year, not a significant disaster. This year is much better and I’m happy to start with.”
- Italian Grand Prix Qualifying Report
Verstappen says that some of the progress is the result of the development of the Red Bull Car itself, but it’s not the only aspect of improving as he warns that Race Pace doesn’t always follow strong qualifying performances.
“I think we’re improving our cars, but we found a better way in the setup,” he said. “We still need to understand more why it doesn’t actually translate in races. I had a pretty decent feeling at Zandvoort, but that wasn’t really good in races.
“So I’m sitting here and I think tomorrow is great in terms of competitiveness with McLaren. It shows that you can be in front of the entire season, yes, sometimes in qualifying, but in races it’s very difficult to move on, sometimes it’s hard to pass.
“We can race here, and we hope that will be a tough battle, but we are taking a step forward, and that’s exactly what we want to do.
