Verstappen out for revenge in qualifying: 'If you screw me, I'll screw you!'

It may not have been quite the qualifying that Max Verstappen had hoped for, yet in the end the Dutchman looks back reasonably satisfied. During the session, there was a moment with Esteban Ocon where tempers ran a bit high. Afterwards, Verstappen divebombed Ocon into Turn 1, which turned out to be an act of revenge.

"Everyone was just making a gap, and suddenly he arrived like a fool between two cars all drifting," Verstappen told Viaplay. "He was already almost driving behind me before Turn 14. So I leave a gap to the other one and then he just tries to screw me for that last corner, to then start his lap. I thought, 'if you screw me, I'll just screw you at Turn 1 too.'"

Verstappen may start the Las Vegas Grand Prix from the front row of the grid. He finished Q3 third, but because of Carlos Sainz' s grid penalty, the Red Bull driver will start next to polesitter Charles Leclerc.

"In Q2 it didn't even look like we would be in the Top 3 maybe," the Dutchman explained. "I think we got the best out of it. I'm also quite happy with my lap. There were not very many mistakes in it. We just weren't good enough over one lap. This is also typically one of those circuits where Ferrari is obviously very strong over one lap. I hope, of course, that tomorrow it will be our can again [that has the upper hand]," he concluded.