How "sensitive" Red Bull surprised Max Verstappen in F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP qualifying

Max Verstappen was surprised to have closed the gap to Red Bull’s main Formula 1 rivals as he earned fifth in qualifying at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was unhappy on Friday, complaining about a lack of grip and balance as he ended the day in sixth.

Verstappen repeated that position in final practice on Saturday, and while he only moved up one spot in qualifying the delta to the pacesetters was smaller, indicating that some progress had been made what he termed a “sensitive” car.

“We just struggled a lot with the car, and in qualifying it was a little bit better,” he said when asked by Crash.net about the performance. “But still a little bit surprised with then the gap shrinking.

“Our car is just a little bit sensitive, but I think overall we can be quite happy with this pace. I mean, the whole weekend, I think we were lacking six/seven tenths, now it's within three-tenths.

“My last lap, for whatever reason, in the final sector, I just started to slide a little bit too much to get more lap time out of it, so I lost quite a bit of time in Turn 10 and 12. And then from there onwards probably took it a bit easy in the final corners, because the feeling was gone.

“Otherwise, maybe P3 of course, would have been on the cards. But at the end of the day, I also don't think it's going to make a massive change to your result tomorrow, because it's going to be all about tyre deg and pit stops and strategies. So we'll see how we go tomorrow.”

Verstappen was one of only three drivers to sacrifice a set of hard tyres in Friday practice, while rivals have saved two sets.

However he doesn’t see that as significant in terms of strategy choice: “To be honest, all the tyres felt bad, so I guess everyone will struggle. Just depends on who will struggle the most or not. So we'll see.”

Reminded by Crash.net that he scored his first F1 a decade ago in Spain after Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had an infamous clash he played down any expectations of drama ahead helping him once more.

“I don't think like that,” he said. “It feels like good memories, but it feels a long time ago now, and for me, I don't think about that anymore.

“Every race, every year is different, whatever happens. So I just want to try and focus on my race more, and see if we can actually be in that fight or not with the cars around us.”

Regarding what the Red Bull is still lacking he added: “I think as a driver you always want more downforce, you always want a better car mechanically. That's what we are working on constantly, to try and improve certain aspects of the car.

“I'm sure also all the other teams are doing the same thing, they're never happy. Even the car in P1, I'm sure they're not happy, they want to find more performance.”