Verstappen after unexpected pole: 'Will be tough to keep them behind'

20:30, 19 Apr

byNorberto Mujica

For Max Verstappen is yet another pole, after he managed to pip Oscar Piastri and George Russell in qualifying for the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, a result that makes him 'very happy', but he holds no illusions ahead of tomorrow's race.

At no point in the weekend did Verstappen and Red Bull ever look poised to challenge McLaren for pole. However, changes were made overnight, and the car came alive for qualifying. "Yeah, I mean very happy. I definitely didn't expect to be on pole here after FP3 as well and looking at the whole how the whole weekend was."

"But yeah, the car came alive in the night. We made some final changes and yeah, it was a lot more enjoyable to drive. The grip was coming to me and around here, you know qualifying up is extremely difficult because of all the walls you need to try and nail it."

Despite 'satisfying' pole, Verstappen is cautious for the F1 race in Jeddah

"Yeah, it's really satisfying, you know. to be first here in qualifying is of course the best position for tomorrow, even though I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but we're gonna give it a good go."

As for the race tomorrow, Verstappen is aware that with McLaren's tyre degradation advantage it will be difficult to capitalise on his pole with a win. "We'll do our best, I mean so far I'm just very happy that we again had a solid qualifying, much better than what we had in Bahrain of course and let's see what we can do tomorrow in the race."