F1 News
Windsor saw Red Bull's trust in Verstappen: "That's why he stayed on that tyre"
- GPblog.com
With Mercedes on the front row of the grid and Max Verstappen in third place, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix could be a boring race. None of the top three drivers made any mistakes in qualifying, so the starting position is not much different to normal. However, there was drama for Verstappen in but he managed to fix his car and get back out on the medium tyres.
"It was no surprise that Verstappen qualified on P3, but he could be a lot faster. Red Bull and Honda reacted tremendously well to the pressure they received at the beginning of Q2. On the medium band Max came on the onboard radio saying he had run out of power. When he got into the pits they took the bodywork off the car and started to repair it. They managed to solve the problem and with five minutes to go they screwed everything back together again," explains Peter Windsor in his video on Youtube.
Important decision Red Bull
When the problem was solved, they sent Verstappen out again on the same medium rubber. "It was an important decision of Red Bull to send Verstappen out again on the medium band instead of the certainty of the red band. However, they have confidence in Max and that's why he stayed on the medium. You don't see many teams clapping for their driver's performance at that time in Q2. However, they knew it was a good performance from Max to drive fast enough for Q3 under pressure on the yellow tyre."
Windsor sees for himself that due to the problems in Q2, Verstappen had less time to prepare well for Q3. However, there are still plenty of chances for the race. "Max himself said it meant he had been on the track less to practice for Q3. The race speed of Red Bull-Honda looks fast, so theoretically there will be some pressure from that side. For the rest, no one will be able to apply that pressure," Windsor concluded.