Verstappen looks back: 'It was either pole or we hit the wall'

Max Verstappen's best moment in 2023? Helmut Marko and Christian Horner called Max Verstappen's pole position in Monaco perhaps the highlight of the season. And especially the way in which. Verstappen put in a sublime final sector to take his first pole ever in the principality.

Verstappen's lap was from another world. The three-time world champion made up a difference of almost three-tenths on Fernando Alonso in the short third sector. Analysts labelled that last sector as "perhaps the very best sector ever driven in Formula 1".

In the Viaplay documentary Max Verstappen: Near Perfect, the protagonist himself looks back on that Saturday afternoon. "I just naturally noticed when I went through that corner - before the last sector started - that although I was faster than what I had driven, it wouldn't be enough. That was my feeling as well. So yeah, I just thought: we're going full on the limit. It was either pole or we hit the wall. I tapped a few walls, kissed a bit, but that was a really nice sector."

Even the cool Verstappen almost had his heart stuck in his throat. "I noticed when I parked the car and I took off my helmet, I was just still shaking a bit. Then you know your heart rate is high," the 26-year-old Dutchman concluded.