Verstappen 'Not Happy' Going Into Race Despite Pole Position Start
F1Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 12:30
Updated at Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 17:06
Max Verstappen explained why he didn't feel happy ahead of the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix event, even though he would be starting from pole.
Coming to Suzuka Circuit, Red Bull was expected to be the fastest car. The rough tarmac and high-speed corners just suit the Austrian team the best.
However, everything got a bit more complicated for Red Bull Racing after the second practice, during which they got zero runs due to damp track conditions.
In FP1, Red Bull didn't practice any long runs, so the team only had one session to prepare for the race, and as the Dutchman revealed, he wasn't happy. As reported by De Telegraaf, he said:
"I'm not too happy with my long runs (in FP3), we weren't as fast as I would like, so that's still a bit of a question mark heading into the race. Ferrari for example looked really comfortable, while they weren't that fast over one lap today..."
"We will see how it turns out tomorrow. I am just not happy with myself, with how the long run looked."
While it remains to be seen how Red Bull's long-run pace will look, their short-run pace definitely worked. Verstappen led every part of qualifying before securing the pole position.
What might be worrying the 26-year-old is that his teammate Sergio Perez was pretty much on pace with him, so if the Mexican driver feels more comfortable with the setup of his car on Sunday, the triple World Champion might be under threat. Verstappen added:
"We didn't have a great balance (in FP3) and quite a lot of deg. I did have some ideas on how to improve the car after free practice. We have changed a few things heading into qualifying."
"Hopefully, this has a good impact on our race pace. It's not bad, but I didn't feel as comfortable in the car as in previous races."
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