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Verstappen ready for a fight after surprise pole: ‘I’m going to give it everything I have’
Max Verstappen admits the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be tougher to win from pole position than his recent triumph in Japan but insists that he’s going to give it everything to hold off the McLarens behind him.
In Suzuka two weeks ago, Verstappen produced an excellent qualifying lap to secure pole position and duly won his first race of the season, in a race that saw little in the way of overtaking. The defending champion repeated the trick in a thrilling qualifying session in Jeddah, but with higher temperatures and more overtaking opportunities, he believes he’s in for a tough fight.
“Up until now not very confident [in the race pace], to be honest,” Verstappen said. “I mean, my long runs weren't particularly great compared to Oscar [Piastri] or Lando [Norris]. I'm going to give it everything I have, for sure.
“Does it mean that I have enough? I don't know but the car definitely took a bit of a step forward, I think, compared to what we were testing yesterday, so I hope that that will help our tire life out as well. It’s difficult to say if that gives an opportunity to fight, but like I said I'm going to give it a go.”
One of the aspects that Verstappen believes helped him edge out Oscar Piastri by 0.01s was the run plan that Red Bull opted for, with the Dutchman completing two runs after the red flag caused by Lando Norris’ crash in Q3.
“[The lap was] good enough, clearly. I felt immediately more confident when I had it into qualifying," he said. "We made some minor changes to the car but they were clearly big enough to feel, and I think that's a bit the story of our car -- it can be like really hit and miss. When we get it right it's competitive of course but when we don't get it right it's a lot more difficult.
“But all of qualifying went well. Around here it's I think always important to have quite a bit of rhythm, so naturally you do quite a lot of laps. The tires luckily hold on to do that.
“Then the red flag in Q3 is not ideal but of course everyone has to deal with that. So we opted for that two-lap strategy and I'm happy that we did that. It just kept me on top of things and it felt good.
“With the crash, I think the only thing that it then meant was that of course you had to change your approach and I wasn't entirely sure what to do. At the end of the day GP [race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase] said, let's fuel it for two laps, so you do the first lap on the used out-lap tire and then you pit and you go onto the new.
“Of course, naturally you carry a bit more fuel so you're a bit slower in the first timed lap, and I think it was the right call. At the end that was definitely the right thing to do for me, at least in terms of the feeling I had with the car and building up to the limit.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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