Marko knew pole was coming for Verstappen: "Three mistakes in first run"

Helmut Marko speaks of a very difficult qualifying on the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. The track conditions were very treacherous and at no time the same. It didn't stop Max Verstappen from securing his sixth pole position of the season though. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were beaten.

"We knew he [Verstappen] had three mistakes in his first run. So he lost a second and a half and if Max put in even a half normal run we knew he would be fine," Marko hinted to ORF.

Red Bull must stay alert

For Red Bull Racing, it was also very difficult to decide where and how to send Verstappen and Perez out."It was just raining all the time, no rain, intermediates or rain tyres. And also with the set-up and tyre pressure, it was a constant back and forth. We were really just orientating on the safety car at the time. From there we could see how much spray was coming up where", the man from Graz explains.

At the start of Q3, Lando Norris crashed hard at Eau Rouge. It is not the first crash there this weekend and two years ago Anthoine Hubert even died after an incident at that section of the track. Marko states that the corner itself is not a challenge for the current cars, but he realises that with top speeds increasing, the question is whether the 'heart of the circuit' can be 'maintained' in this way.