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Verstappen predicts difficult Sunday: 'We don't have McLaren's pace"
While Max Verstappen was positively surprised with finishing in third position at the first qualifying session of the season, but the Dutchman is not confident about the gap to McLaren.
After the two free practice sessions on Friday, Verstappen explained he would be happy with just getting through to Q3 today in qualifying. Not only he managed to achieve that, but he also match Helmut Marko's prediction. The Austrian top advisor said finishing on the second row is possible.
"The car did improve slightly compared to yesterday, but the gap you see in Q3 shows that we are not there yet," the Dutchman told Viaplay after qualifying.
What does Verstappen expect from the Grand Prix?
"The balance wasn't wrong, but it's just a bit too slow. You have to accept that. It's the first race weekend, hopefully we can make strides with the car now, but it's obviously a big gap."
Verstappen himself was satisfied with his own performance at the Albert Park, and cited that as a key for his resutl. "Not making any mistakes, I don't think I did either. In itself, I am happy with the performance of Q1, Q2 and Q3."
However, he believes Sunday will be different, given the foreshadowed race pace of Ferrari and Mercedes. Also, rain will very likely play a key factor. "I don't think we have the race pace of McLaren and relative to Ferrari and Mercedes it is difficult. I didn't do many laps in FP2 either. So I don't know how long my tyres will last. Tomorrow there is also quite a chance of rain, then it will be very different again."
This article was written in collaboration with Tim Kraaij
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