Verstappen jokes: 'The technical directive has been really bad for us'

Max Verstappen seemed to be in a different league to the rest in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps. The championship leader stepped out of his RB18 with two minutes on the clock, but still took pole position over six tenths ahead of Carlos Sainz. It seems Verstappen was not bluffing when he said the FIA's new technical directive would have little effect on Red Bull Racing.

After the Hungarian Grand Prix, George Russell claimed that Red Bull and Ferrari had 'undoubtedly pushed the boundaries of the regulations' with regard to the use of flexible floors, which both teams suspected. The FIA intervened with a technical directive that came into force this weekend, but Verstappen said before the summer break that his team would probably not notice much of it.

This was once again confirmed during qualifying, in which Verstappen simply dominated. " That technical directive has been very, very bad for us," he says with a wink to The Telegraph. "As I said before, I didn't expect it to make much difference to our car. Whether it does for Ferrari, I don't know. And Mercedes is a bit short of top speed this year anyway, so it's no surprise that they're not competing here either."

Verstappen can think of one reason why Red Bull is coming out so strong at Spa-Francorchamps. "This year we are fast on the straights and somehow we can now combine that with speed in the corners," he explained. This allowed the Dutchman to open up a gap to the competition, but he himself did not expect the lead to be so big.