Max Verstappen describes his difficulties in Formula 1 qualifying in Azerbaijan – According to Helmut Marko, pole position would have been possible for him
Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen now has to admit defeat to his team-mate Sergio Perez for the second street circuit qualifying in a row. However, with third place on the grid in Azerbaijan, the Dutchman still has every chance of winning the race.
“If I’m honest, I was a bit too slow consistently,” said Verstappen after qualifying in Baku. “It was a bit difficult again throughout the weekend to find a good balance. That has been the case throughout all the sessions.”
“The start of the lap was actually quite good, but then I made small mistakes, which was not ideal. It’s not the result I was hoping for, but with second and third places, as a team we still have every chance for tomorrow. “
Helmut Marko believes: “Pole position was in the cards “
Even before the start of his fast lap, things were not going well for Verstappen as his teammate, who was supposed to be in front of him to provide slipstream, stopped in the pits with a problem. This situation cost Verstappen pole position, according to Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
“Perez didn’t get out in front of Max as planned,” Marko said. “First of all, that would have given a slipstream in sector 3 and there he was now behind a Mercedes, all that didn’t fit together. So from the sector times: It was pole position in it. “
However, the motorsport consultant is wrong with this statement, because if you take Verstappen’s and Perez’s best sector times from the entire qualifying session and compare them with Charles Leclerc’s pole lap, then even theoretically it wouldn’t have been enough.
Verstappen was about three and a half tenths off pole, but even if you compare his theoretical best lap time with Leclerc’s lap, it’s still three tenths. Perez would also have been two tenths off. If Leclerc had also got his best sectors together, then it would have been as much as four and a half tenths behind for the Dutchman.
Situation between Perez and Verstappen tense?
The fact is that Sergio Perez has beaten last year’s world champion for the second time. However, Marko disagrees that the current situation between the Mexican and Verstappen is tense: “There was a slight tension after Monaco. Especially Jos Verstappen, the father, made a few comments that were not substantiated and not helpful. “
“But we had a discussion on Friday morning, both with Perez and with Max and then the two of them sat down together. So everything fits there. And the Mexican is on fire, as we say. He has never been so strong, so good in all the sessions. And yes, now it’s between the two of them. They have the same material, the same conditions. May the better one win.”
Jos Verstappen had complained after the Monaco race that Red Bull had let Perez win, “throwing away ten points for Max. “
