Ferrari close to Red Bull according to Verstappen? 'We didn't look good'

It has not been an easy weekend for Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing so far. But after three free practice sessions in which the Dutchman was not the fastest, he still topped the table after qualifying. Relief, then, for Verstappen, that Red Bull turned things around.

"I'm very happy with that," Verstappen spoke of the improvements. "So far this weekend, it's been a bit tough to find a good balance in the car, and even throughout qualifying, Q1, Q2, I didn't really feel like fighting for pole. But then we made some little tickles [tweaks] on the car, that seemed to help me in Q3 to really push it to the limit. In both of my laps, I felt quite happy with it. It always seems that you can improve, but overall very satisfied with the performance."

Verstappen saw Red Bull 'not on top of it'

Verstappen's Red Bull was the only car to go under 1.16. Verstappen thinks the car can still go faster. "More to come. I tried to do the best I could. If you go corner after corner, maybe there are a few things that you can do better. When you're under pressure, flat out it's always very hard to nail every single corner like on any other track. But in general very pleased with the laps that we did."

Ferrari was close behind Red Bull Racing. Verstappen was asked if the Italians got a lot closer? The world champion had to remain guilty of the answer. "Maybe it's because we were not on top of things, but they looked well-dialled in from the start. And probably from our side, it was a bit the opposite way. We managed to improve it. But the race is going to be quite tough with the softer compounds we have this year. So yeah, we'll find out tomorrow."