Verstappen looks towards Ferrari's way in Japan: 'They are fast'

While Ferrari was very strong in Australia, the team was not so fast during qualifying in Japan. Carlos Sainz qualified in fourth place and Charles Leclerc is only eighth. Still, don't rule out Ferrari for the Grand Prix on Sunday tells Max Verstappen.

Prior to the weekend in Japan, Carlos Sainz already estimated that Suzuka will be a circuit that does not suit Ferrari quite right. In qualifying, this proved true. Both Red Bull and McLaren were faster than Ferrari. Still, the Ferrari looks good on the longer distances, Verstappen said.

He couldn't explain why the Ferraris were slow during qualifying. "I cannot look inside the Ferrari garage why that is, but it's quite obvious that then in the long run they seem quite competitive," the Dutchman told reporters after qualifying in Japan.

"We'll see tomorrow of course why that is or if it actually is the case," he continued. The three-time world champion himself is not satisfied with his car's long runs. He hopes for improvement for Sunday. ''"From our side, I have some ideas of what we have to look into to make tomorrow better, and we already changed after FP3, so hopefully that will be better for tomorrow. I mean, our race pace is still not too bad, but it's not how I have been feeling in some of the races this year, last year was more comfortable let's say. But hopefully, with the changes that we made, it will be better," said the Dutchman, while on the other hand, Carlos Sainz has remained cautious about his team's pace.