Verstappen has a final message for fans ahead of the Hungarian GP

The weekend in Hungary didn’t start easily for Red Bull. The Hungaroring is known as a circuit where maximum grip and a good balance are essential, due to the many slow corners and the lack of long straights. During practice it became clear that Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes had their affairs in better order, and in qualifying he ended up sixth.

Due to penalties, Verstappen moved up to fourth place. “I expect a tough, long race, but we’ll see what we can do. Hopefully the car is put together a bit better now, but that’s hard to judge. Of course I’m going to do my best, but we’ll see. I don’t know where we stand or how competitive we can be. Naturally I’m starting a bit further forward because of others’ penalties, but I don’t know. Hopefully we’ll be positively surprised during the race.”

For Verstappen, sixth place was a disappointment, especially since Red Bull regularly fought at the front earlier in the season. Norris took pole position for McLaren, while Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc put in a strong showing; in the end Verstappen still moved up two spots, but he wasn’t satisfied.

After qualifying Verstappen was also unhappy with how things went. “It’s always something else that doesn’t work. Or that breaks, or whatever. I’m done with it for now. At least with this qualifying,” he said. “For me the whole qualifying was crap. Ever since third practice we’ve been losing downforce on the car. And it just kept going, also in qualifying. So that’s just completely worthless.”