Brown surprised not to see Verstappen at the front: 'I expected him to be there'

To begin with, Brown could only praise Oscar Piastri, who is the first repeat winner of qualifying in the 2025 season, calling his performance "mega" to F1 TV.

On the other hand, the CEO also saw Norris getting a worse result. "He's [Piastri] been mega strong, as has Lando. He's got a great racing car under him. And obviously, he's disappointed because he knows he underperformed and should be right there on the front row with Oscar. But tomorrow's a new day and a long race, a couple stops. You can pass around here. So just get a good night's sleep and give it a go again tomorrow."

After another strong performance also in qualifying, where he seemed to be behind his teammate the previous season, the American continued: "Two number one drivers, I wouldn't go racing any other way. It's great to see and his confidence is high with everyone at McLaren's giving our two drivers a great race car. So let's see what tomorrow brings."

While for the McLaren CEO it didn't stand out that both George Russell and Charles Leclerc close, he did not expect Verstappen not to be up there, after the Red Bull driver finished in seventh place.

About Sunday's Grand Prix, Brown concluded: "We’ll have to see what the engineers decide tonight and tomorrow morning on the strategy. I think it will be a couple of stops. We'll see what tyre strategy we go with, but I'm confident we'll have a good race tomorrow. The goal is definitely two cars on the podium on the first and second step. I think that's achievable, but not going to be easy"