Formula 1 ®

Max digs down deep to take pole at the Emilia-Romania Grand Prix.

The Red Bull three-time world champion’s dominance in qualifying drew him level with Senna’s run of eight poles, poignantly three decades after the late great Brazilian’s tragic death at the Italian circuit in 1994.

“It’s a great start to the year but also very special 30 years since he passed away at this track,” said Verstappen. “Of course, very pleased to get pole here and in a way it’s a nice memory to him (Senna), he was an incredible Formula 1 driver especially in qualifying laps as well, so a great day for me and a great day for the team, I’m very very happy.”

Oscar Piastri’s McLaren will start alongside the unstoppable Dutchman on Sunday after posting the second fastest time 0.074 seconds behind in a tight qualifying session. The Australian’s teammate Lando Norris, winner last time out in Miami, posted the third best time to fill the second row alongside the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari will set off on the third row with the Mercedes of George Russell for company. Yuki Tsunoda’s RB, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Daniel Ricciardo (RB), and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) rounded out the top 10.

The glaring absentee from the first five rows was the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who went out in the second qualifying session, the Mexican muttering “what a mess” on the team radio.

Piastri in contrast was thrilled to get so close to taking pole. “My lap was a bit scruff in the final corner, but it is so difficult to do a perfect lap at this circuit but I’m very happy.”

Norris, who claimed his maiden victory two weeks ago, said: “P3 is not a bad job and both of us are within a tenth of P1, so it is all about tiny margins. We’ve had a good day and a good weekend so far.” After a chaotic third practice on a beautiful sunlit day at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Verstappen was swiftly on the pace and went top after eight minutes in 1:16.013 only 

Max

It was a whole team effort but we managed to bring it together today.

“It was a really rewarding pole today and everything ended up coming together for qualifying. This weekend has been tough and we have been lacking pace and balance within the car, however we kept on working at it and trying to improve. When we went into qualifying, the balance of the car felt a lot better, so it was a great turnaround. Honestly it is just a fantastic track and I wish we had more of those on the calendar. It felt unbelievable to drive a qualifying lap here; there are a few old school tracks that we have remaining on the calendar which are really exciting and what I fell in love with when I started watching and racing in Formula One. McLaren is looking strong but with the changes that we made on the car, it should be better for the race tomorrow. I feel a little less prepared than I would like to be going into the race and we don’t expect it to be easy, but we are going to give it a good go. It is special and a proud moment to receive eight poles in a row, especially as we have been having a tough weekend. It was a whole team effort but we managed to bring it together today. Very happy!”

Yuki

Qualifying – Best lap: (Q1) 1:15.894, (Q2) 1:15.358, (Q3) 1:15.465 pos. 7th

“Congrats to the team, and Daniel as well. We’re showing how much pace the car has, and I think the amount of work the people are doing in the factory is more than we think, so they deserve the credit. We didn’t expect this much performance but the team is working really hard to develop our car and their effort is massive, more than I can imagine, and it’s paying off because the car is consistently performing really well. As a “new” team with many new people, we needed time to blend together and now everyone’s working well and we don’t make many mistakes. They definitely deserve the results and I’m super appreciative of the team for giving me such a nice car, especially at our home race in front of our factory people in the grandstand. For myself, to be honest, I’m not entirely happy because I didn’t manage to give the maximum in Q3 today, but I think until then it was pretty good. It was the first time I was able to get through Q2 with one set and that’s definitely a positive. In Q3, the laps I did weren’t amazing, I was expecting more and I could’ve done better. As a driver, it’s always frustrating when you don’t put it all together and there is time left on the table. In saying that, this week has been pretty solid so far, so we’ll focus on extracting the maximum performance and finishing strong with both cars tomorrow!”

Fernando

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