Verstappen Grateful to Hamilton After Scoring P5 in Qualifying

Saturday, 23 November 2024 at 13:00

Max Verstappen shared his immediate thoughts following the qualifying session for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen qualified in P5 for the 22nd round of the 2024 season at Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

While this wouldn't normally be a good result for the triple World Champion, he was fairly satisfied following the qualifying session on Friday night.

Red Bull Racing doesn't have the right specification of the rear wing for the circuit in Las Vegas, which resulted in the Dutchman losing too much time on the straight to his rivals.

Ultimately, Verstappen's best lap time was 0,485 seconds slower than the pole position lap time set by Mercedes driver George Russell, but crucially, the 27-year-old still outqualified his Championship rival Lando Norris, who will start the race right behind him.

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Speaking to the media after the qualification, Max Verstappen mentioned that he could feel his rear wing being a significant handicap, but it wasn't his only problem.

"We know that with our wing, you naturally lose top speed, especially with the DRS open, it is a bit of a handicap, we know that."

"It is something we have to deal with on a track like this, like Monza, but besides that, I felt like with the tires, we were going to struggle to get them into the right operating window."

"We did the best we could with what we had and got a bit lucky with Lewis not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6."

Lewis Hamilton could have scored a pole position in Las Vegas, but made two mistakes in his final two runs in Q3, which means he will start the race from P10. Verstappen added:

"We optimized as a team, but it is still too slow, but half of it is on the straight. The wing is not the most efficient but hopefully, with everyone close in DRS, it is a little better, but when you trim the DRS, you have less of a DRS effect - and that is what is painful in qualifying."