Max Verstappen was lured into a bet in Japanese Grand Prix qualifying which Christian Horner wasn’t particularly keen to be a part of. The F1 star managed to eke some extra time out of his Red Bull at the end of Q3, leaving the team principal stressed about making it through to Sunday’s race unscathed.
Verstappen was completely dominant in qualifying at Suzuka, comfortably finishing ahead of the two McLarens and bettering team-mate Sergio Perez by almost eight-tenths.
After the sessions, Horner revealed to Sky Sports that Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, had goaded the driver into posting a lap time which the Red Bull boss felt was unnecessary.
“[Lambiase] started winding [Verstappen] up for the last run to say let’s see a 1:28.00,” Horner explained. “I said I’d prefer to see all four wheels on the car at the end of it.
“That first run looked good enough to get the job done but he went quicker again. All his laps were stunning today. It was a mind-blowing performance. Singapore was a bit of an anomaly for us but the car has always been strong at this type of circuit all year.”
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