‘I finally felt just myself again in the car’ - Verstappen

Max Verstappen says he felt like his natural self driving a Formula 1 car during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, after securing a place on the front row.

The 2026 regulations have seen drivers having to manage energy levels during qualifying laps, leading to dissent at times, with Verstappen particularly vocal. After qualifying second in Monaco – a track where drivers have been able to push throughout due to the lack of long straights – Verstappen says it was a far more enjoyable session that suited his driving style.

“I think the chassis regulation is not that bad at all,” Verstappen said. “In general, the cars being a little bit more narrow and stuff, I think it’s all right. Also, I quite like that now the vision on the front axle is a bit better around apexes again, instead of that [deflector] we had above the tire before. So that’s good.

“Of course, if you can go flat out and you can just select the gears that you want to use in the corners, it’s always going to be better. So, I finally felt just myself again in the car, let’s say like that, with the way you want to use the gears.

“Unfortunately, of course, we can’t do that in too many places on the calendar, but that’s what then makes it more and more natural to drive for sure.”

Although Kimi Antonelli beat Verstappen to pole position by 0.043s, the four-time world champion says the recovery after FP3 left him very satisfied with his result.

“Quite a bit, after this morning… We were like nine tenths off! I was confident that we would make some improvements heading into qualifying, but not to fight for pole, honestly," he said. "When I jumped into the car, I was like, ‘OK, let’s try and recover a bit.' Maybe top five, that was the target. But I’d say from quite early on in qualifying, the car felt a bit better.

“We still have our little problems and especially in the middle sector, that’s where we lose the most, where you have a few curbs that you have to take and there are a few bumps in the track. It’s just a little bit more complicated at the moment for our car. But I still think that overall, we had a very good qualifying.

“We were up there; we were fighting for pole. So even if you would have told me after yesterday, where we looked quite OK, to be starting on the front row, I would have immediately taken it. For us it’s been a very good turnaround. Yesterday I was quite happy. This morning, really not happy, and now I’m fairly happy again. So that’s good when it matters.

“This was of course the most important session of the weekend. Tomorrow there is still a start, which this year seems a little bit more critical to get right compared to other years, where it was not such a big deal, I would say. So that’s still something that we have to look at. But overall, for us, this has been a very positive weekend.”