Max Verstappen says he is excited for a close battle with the McLaren drivers after again outqualifying both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for the Sprint at the United States Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s resurgence since Monza has continued, with Verstappen beating both McLarens in every qualifying session since he took pole in Italy last month. That includes strong performances in Baku and Singapore, and after setting the fastest time in Sprint qualifying he expects a straight fight with the McLaren pair on Saturday.
“It’s been a nice qualifying,” Verstappen said. “I think throughout all the segments we were quite close. Just about trying to put it all together when it matters at the end, which is not easy because you go to the soft compound with no reference really. But it worked out well.
“Still expect it to be a tough battle tomorrow in the Sprint. That’s exactly what we want to see, right? Excited for tomorrow and happy with today.
“You can feel the wind is coming up and down, very gusty. The track is very bumpy as well, so the cars can easily step out on you in the high speed. In a qualifying like that, you have to leave a few margins here and there. n\Nevertheless, I think for us, this has been again a very good day.”
With Norris going from second and Piastri third, Verstappen says keeping both behind on the opening lap could be crucial, as it is hard to defend into COTA’s first turn.
“Just try and have a good start,” he said. “It’s a wide Turn 1 as well. I hope that we have good pace in the race, but we’ll find out tomorrow. [The McLaren threat is] a big one. I mean, they’re super fast. We know normally in the race they step it up a little bit, so it will be tough.”
Although the Dutchman was unhappy with aspects of his car’s handling in FP1 on Friday, he says Red Bull made the right changes throughout the qualifying session to give him a car he was confident with.
“It was just fine tuning, understanding the track as well,” he said. “We got back and the track got even bumpier and that makes it sometimes very hard to drive. We made some little adjustments with the car and then in qualifying it was a little bit better.
“You go through the compounds and you go onto the soft, and the final run you only have one go at it. It was alright; it was good – good to be first. It’s close, and I expect that to be also tomorrow in the race.”
