Chandhok: 'I don't believe that Max would have beaten Bottas for pole'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
On Saturday, nobody in the Red Bull Racing camp was happy with Yuki Tsunoda, who they believe caused Max Verstappen to miss out on pole position in Mexico. But is their criticism of the AlphaTauri driver fair? Former Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok finds out.
The fastest laps of Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen are put side by side and although the two seem to be almost equally fast, there is still a difference between them. "If we go in this first left right sequence of corners, it's quite clear that Bottas is ahead" Chandhok let us know at Sky Sports F1.
Verstappen would not have beaten Bottas
"So the answer to that question is: would Verstappen have taken pole? At the moment it's no. Because Bottas is already on the kerbs and you can see Verstappen there on the right. He is behind," Chandhok continued. Only after those corners is it clear that Tsunoda and Perez are driving next to the track forcing Verstappen to brake.
"I don't believe that Max would have beaten Bottas for pole even if he hadn't had those two cars in front of him," Chandhok concluded. Besides Bottas, Verstappen was also not fast enough to beat title rival Lewis Hamilton. As a result, the Dutchman will start from third place.