Max Verstappen was unable to grab pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, instead finishing qualifying in P3, behind Charles Leclerc and title rival Lewis Hamilton. His first run was good enough for that third fastest time and he then could not improve his time thanks to incidents for Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz at turn 15. The Dutchman is disappointed with the result.
"It was just a stupid qualifying," Verstappen said in an initial reaction to his spot on the second row of the grid. "It is what it is, it is P3 after all. We have a good car. Everything worked, but it's this shit every time. It doesn't bother me. It's in Q3 again, but it's a street circuit and so these can happen."
Clearly, the 23-year-old Limburger had hoped for more. "As I said, our car is strong. Hopefully we can keep the tyres good in the race. I would have liked to have started a bit further up front, but as you see in qualifying a lot of things happen. Maybe it will happen again in the race. Let's hope for a good, trouble-free start."
Quite a duel on Sunday
Charles Leclerc set the fastest time on Saturday afternoon, with Lewis Hamilton in P2, meaning it will be quite a battle with different teams in the race."It's always good to see several racing teams up front," Verstappen concluded.