Max Verstappen believes he must identify the ideal passing zones on track if he hopes to defeat Lando Norris and claim the win at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver secured the third spot on the grid at Madrid’s brand-new street track, finishing slightly more than a tenth of a second behind pole-sitter Norris and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli.
When questioned about his chances of fighting the McLaren for the top spot, the Dutchman expressed doubts, pointing to the anticipated difficulty of overtaking at the Madrid venue.
“It is going to be difficult,” he remarked. “In the absolute best situation, even if you have more pace, overtaking is nearly impossible. There are simply no turns that allow for passes. Consequently, you have to count on others experiencing severe tire degradation.
“The high-fuel simulations were highly demanding, with massive tire wear for all teams, which will likely be the deciding factor tomorrow. Nonetheless, I still have to locate a specific turn where I can actually make a move.”
The reigning world champion was reasonably pleased with his display in qualifying. This session marked his smallest gap to the front row since Monaco, where he trailed Antonelli by a mere 0.043 seconds.
Max Verstappen driving for Red Bull Racing
Image credit: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
“We managed to make some solid progress with the car, which felt reasonably well-balanced right from our opening runs here. However, our main struggle remains the final sector of the lap, where our energy deployment doesn’t quite match what our rivals are achieving, making it highly challenging to keep up.
“Even so, I am generally pleased with how the session unfolded. There was a steady improvement through Q1, Q2, and into Q3.
“I don’t think I left much time on the track; it was simply a matter of dealing with certain known limitations of our package, alongside the power delivery issues in the final sector that we didn’t quite optimize. Still, that is just the battle for grid spots. Sunday’s grand prix will be an entirely different story.”
Was a stronger grid slot truly within reach for Verstappen, considering he led the second segment of qualifying by 0.160 seconds ahead of Antonelli?
“I was among the very few drivers who ran two fresh sets of tires, so that session is not a highly accurate comparison,” he clarified.
