'Almost Felt Like The Failed 2021 Lap': Verstappen 'Very Happy' With His Effort

Saturday, 09 March 2024 at 10:15

Max Verstappen discussed his performance with the media after the qualifying session ahead of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The triple World Champion took over the qualifying on Friday at Jeddah corniche Circuit. He was clearly the fastest man in all three parts of the qualifying.

In the end, he set a lap of 1:27.472, which was 0.319 seconds faster than the second-fastest lap set by Charles Leclerc in Ferrari. As he told the media after the race, the 26-year-old felt confident in his RB20.

"It was a very good day so far. We improved the car a little bit overnight, and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners, and around here of course it all depends a lot on your confidence and how much you can go to the limit."

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Many people in our comments on Facebook say Verstappen is only the fastest because of his car. But his speed can also be measured by the gap he pulled to his teammate in equal machinery.

The closest that Perez got to Verstappen throughout the whole qualifying session was 0.335 seconds. Even Checo admitted after the session that the triple World Champion put in a "tremendous lap."

The 34-year-old also suggested it was "not possible" for him to replicate that kind of lap on Friday. The triple World Champion continued:

"I really think today I felt comfortable with the car. Throughout qualifying it’s pretty crazy how fast you go around here, especially I think on my first lap in Q3 I was very happy with, how I did the lap."

Verstappen remembered his famous 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying lap, which was considered perfect—well, until the last corner, when he crashed. He added:

"It felt almost a bit like the failed 2021 lap! It was very good, I had a lot of fun and the car was behaving really well."