Verstappen: "For me it never really happened"
F1 News
It may have taken 23 podiums, 7 race wins and 92 starts but Max Verstappen finally has his first ever F1 pole position. The Dutchman has been reflecting on his achievement insisting it didn't matter when he got it.
Verstappen was able to secure his first pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating Valtteri Bottas by just 0.018s with Lewis Hamilton a further place back in third. The Dutchman topped two of the three qualifying sessions and set a new track record with a time of 1:14.572, the standard which would not be beaten.
Despite it taking over four years for him to get his first pole, Verstappen insisted it never really bothered him as he reflected on his maiden F1 pole.
“For me it never really mattered. I knew it was a matter of time, you need luck sometimes as well," Verstappen said on the F1 website.
"Of course I made mistakes to miss the pole position shot but today we got that so I’m very happy with that.
“It's incredible. The car felt good all weekend and then, of course you know it's always going to be hard in qualifying, but yeah we managed to do it."
Despite starting on pole Max insisted there was still a job to do, adding: "There is still a race to do and that’s at the end of the day the most important, but for me today was an important one."