Verstappen confesses after qualifying: 'I had to risk everything'

Max Verstappen really managed to secure his pole for the Monaco Grand Prix at the very last minute. The two-time world champion kept everyone - and Fernando Alonso who thus came second - in suspense, but was thus once again the best on a Saturday.

Only in the last sector of the decisive lap, Verstappen went into the purple with his time. But speaking of the best pole of his career, the Dutchman was reluctant to do so: "No, I don't think so, but it was good enough. I'm just happy to get my first pole here. It's always super hectic."

Verstappen knew about being behind

He continued: "Finally, we also had just clean running in Q3 as well, so that was nice for everyone to just push to the limit. The whole qualifying, I think, went
pretty well. I struggled a bit to put it in the first lap with a warm-up with the tyres and just putting it all together, all the sectors. I knew that the last lap I had to do it because they improved. I also knew that going into the last sector, I was down on them. I had to push flat out in the last sector and risk everything to get back to lap time. Luckily, we did."

Entering the final sector, Verstappen was two-tenths slower than the best time. What was the secret in the final section on the track? "I touched a few walls, guardrails and walls. I was always quite quick in the last sector, but I definitely pushed a bit harder in the last lap."

Verstappen confident of race pace

The race is normally different from qualifying in Monaco. Overtaking there is very difficult, if not out of the question. "The race should be okay. It's just about having a clean start. There's always chaos involved in Monaco, but I think our race pace and general behaviour of the car on the tyres is fine. It was all about just putting that together over one lap, which I knew was going to be a little bit harder for us here in Monaco, just with how our car is, and the characteristics of it. Still, to be first here is great for the whole team."