But despite his final lap in Q3 taking him to the top of the standings, the Dutchman initially thought he’d blown it. With the Scuderia duo of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz still to go out for their last efforts, Verstappen told team officials over radio his 1:29.179 lap would not be enough.
Neither driver was able to topple Verstappen though, with Sainz only managing fourth place despite topping final practice earlier in the day. And Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner was quick to remind his man that he had wrongly doubted himself.
“It was enough Max,” he told him, with the driver laughing as he replied “I’m so sorry.” Horner fired back: “Nothing to be sorry about Max, it was a good start. Two-tenths clear of Charles and three-tenths clear of George.”
The initial apology confused Sky Sports F1 pundits David Croft and Martin Brundle, who had been unaware of the 26-year-old’s previous declaration. But Verstappen himself insisted his qualifying display had come as a surprise.
“It was a lot of fun actually,” he told Sky afterwards. “The track had a lot of grip, but with the wind in the last few days it’s been quite tricky to get a whole lap together. It was same in qualifying, Q1 and Q2, and to really get everything out of it in Q3 was difficult.
“But very happy to be on pole. To be honest it was a little bit unexpected but luckily in qualifying the car came to us and I felt a bit happier. We needed to fine tune a couple of things after yesterday to get the perfect balance. Luckily we went in the right direction today and could really push a bit more.
Verstappen being on pole is ominous for the rest of the field. He has won on the last 16 occasions that he has started at the very front of the grid, but was cautious in stating: “The race is going to be close as well. We’ll see tomorrow.”
Russell however, wasn’t quite so diplomatic. Asked on the prospects for tomorrow, he said: “It will be a close fight between everyone other than Max.”
