Verstappen: "This circuit is definitely one of my top 5"

"The fact that I could have been even faster in qualifying gives me confidence in the speed of the car," Verstappen told in front of, among others, The Telegraph. The Dutchman calculated that he lost one and a half tenths in his final run because of a gear change error and also lost a tenth because his DRS did not open.

Verstappen laughed when the suggestion was made that he consciously didn't use DRS so he could enjoy the fans in the stands. "Haha, no, it really didn't work. I can hear the crowd, though. Not when I drive full throttle, but during the slow laps or when the radio opens and I talk to the engineer. The atmosphere was unprecedented. And that's not even using the full capacity." Normally there are 105,000 visitors per day at Zandvoort, but because of the corona measures the maximum capacity is now 66 percent.

The start will be very important, because overtaking is not easy. Yet Verstappen is also on his guard after lap one. "A lot of things can still happen then. We've never raced with these cars before, it's a lot of laps and this circuit is hard on tyres. But I did enjoy it. You really feel the grip of a Formula 1 car here. This circuit is definitely one of my top 5", he concludes.