Verstappen is hoping to find advantage with extra set of hard tyres
Immediately after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen sounded quite satisfied with his third place. A little later in front of the Ziggo Sport camera, he still is, but he thinks the difference with Mercedes is too big.
“Well, too big, right?," Is Verstappen's reaction when asked if he is satisfied with the gap to Lewis Hamilton. “It's four and a half tenths or something, almost five tenths. For our part, that's not what you want, but it is what it is. I don't think this circuit is normally our strongest track either. "
Verstappen is realistic
“Third is where I've been all year, so there's nothing shocking about it and nothing annoying about it. Of course you want to be closer and of course you prefer to be first, but you just have to be realistic that that is not possible," says Verstappen, who also has a hard time before the race.
“We have different tyres compared to Mercedes, of course. We have one extra set of hard tyres. If you get in a bit of trouble with mediums, that hard tyre can work, but I think they have enough speed in the race to make it really difficult for them, but hopefully, I'll be positively surprised tomorrow."
This article was written and originally published by Pelle on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.