Verstappen Shares What Went Wrong In Qualifying As He Misses Out On Pole
F1Sunday, 20 October 2024 at 10:41
Updated at Sunday, 20 October 2024 at 11:10
Max Verstappen discussed how he missed out on the pole position for the 2024 United State Grand Prix that was snatched by Lando Norris.
The Red Bull Racing F1 team brought new upgrades to the circuit in Austin this race weekend, and it seems they work just as the Austrian team would hope.
After qualifying on pole for the Sprint, Max Verstappen went on to win the sprint race. Even though Lando Norris was in the DRS behind him already on the second lap, he could not get close enough to overtake.
After a successful start to the weekend, Verstappen also showed great potential in qualifying for the Grand Prix. However, in the end, he lost the pole position to Norris and will have to start the race on Sunday from P2. Speaking to the media after the Qualifying session, he said:
"I was a good amount up, but already on my first lap in Q3, I messed up Turn 19, so I don't know what happened there."
"Just turned in probably a bit late, tried to carry a bit more speed. But then, of course, when you're late, you end up really wide, so I had to downshift one more time."
While Verstappen went a bit more conservative and made a mistake on the first lap of Q3, his McLaren rival went all out and said he might have scored the best qualifying lap of his career.
The 27-year-old Red Bull driver then had one more opportunity to improve on his initial lap. However, George Russell's crash triggered double-waved yellow flags, which meant it was over, and the order stayed how it was at the end of the first runs of Q3. Verstappen added:
"So I lost quite a bit of lap time there. That would have already been enough for pole. So I knew that the second lap, there was time to find for free, but yeah, never really got to that corner."
"That happens, qualifying, it's not always in your control. I think, in general, though, for us, this whole weekend so far has been a lot more positive. We could at least fight for pole, and that has been a while."
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