Verstappen doesn't believe Hamilton: "He's trying to play the underdog"

Max Verstappen took pole at the Red Bull Ring in Austria for the first time in his career. The times that he and Red Bull Racing were only occasionally faster than Mercedes are now definitely over. Although Verstappen doesn't think he has a dominant car at his disposal now.

"This is absolutely no coincidence anymore," Verstappen acknowledged to The Telegraph. "Of course it will still fall the other way once in a while, but so far we're doing pretty well on Saturday," the Dutchman said of his speed during qualifying. If red flags and a small mistake at the previous Grand Prix hadn't spoiled things, Verstappen believes there could have been more pole positions.

Mercedes has it better planned for Sunday

In the championship battle with Lewis Hamilton it is in Verstappen's best interest to start the race from the best possible position. During the races it has become clear that Mercedes often have a better setup. In France Hamilton and Bottas were actually faster, but chose the wrong strategy. Hamilton now claims that Red Bull are also faster on the long runs and causes some confusion with Verstappen.

"Lewis said we were faster in the long runs on Friday? That's not true. He's trying to play the underdog a bit, but you can see it's very close. It's always been that way so far this season. On Sunday you see that they have it better together than on Saturday, also because they are good on the tyres. That's something we need to work on," said the championship leader.