Max Verstappen aims cheeky jab at George Russell over F1 Dutch GP qualifying incident
Max Verstappen landed a joke at George Russell's expense over a qualifying incident at Zandvoort.
Max Verstappen aimed a cheeky jab at Formula 1 rival George Russell following an incident during qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion predicted that Russell would be complaining after he came out of the pit lane narrowly ahead of the Mercedes driver during qualifying.
"We'll probably have George crying on the radio about the pit release, but it was nothing unsafe,” Verstappen quipped to his Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
However, Verstappen was wrong with his prediction as Russell did not appear to respond to the incident - at least on the radio messages that were broadcast.
Russell would have the last laugh come the end of qualifying as he secured second place on the grid, having been narrowly beaten to pole position by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen qualified seventh, one place ahead of his team-mate Liam Lawson, who is standing in for the injured Isack Hadjar, for his home race at Zandvoort.
Grim outlook as Red Bull changes ‘made no difference’
Verstappen worryingly admitted that set-up changes made by Red Bull between the sprint race and qualifying made little difference to the performance and handling of his RB22.
"We changed quite a bit [after the Sprint] and it didn't make a difference,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.
“The balance was pretty much the same as what I had all weekend so it didn't really allow me to push or feel comfortable with the car. So that's then the position you're in.”
Asked if Red Bull can change something for the race, Verstappen replied: "I don't know. Difficult to say at the moment when you are just lacking pace. Just need to try and do our own race and see if it's positive or not.”
Verstappen acknowledged that if improvements cannot be found, he is braced to be “completely alone” during Sunday’s race.
“For sure, this is not our best layout, probably, but we just need to work on it tomorrow. It might be a little bit better, but yeah, we need to try and just dial it out.”
The Dutchman added: “It's not frustrating. I mean, we've been in that [situation] basically the whole the whole year, you know? It's not something that has just popped up.”
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