Red Bull is convinced that Max Verstappen could have made pole without George Russell’s crash because the signs were good for it.
Would Max Verstappen have taken pole position at the Formula 1 race in Singapore if George Russell hadn’t crashed? “From our point of view, it would have been possible,” Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko told Sky. The times also suggest that.
Verstappen was 0.172 seconds ahead of his title rival Lando Norris after the first sector, who was only 0.031 seconds faster than Verstappen in the first attempt. He had thus beaten his own best time in the first sector by around half a tenth of a second – Norris himself was slower than before.
And the Dutchman knew that he could do even better on the rest of the lap: “He had a bad exit out of Turn 12, which cost him some time,” says Marko. There, Verstappen could also have improved on his previous time, just as he could in Turn 19.
Because on his first Q3 lap, Verstappen “screwed up” this penultimate corner, as he says. “I don’t know what happened there. I turned in, maybe braked a little too late and tried to carry momentum. But if you brake late, you drift wide and I had to downshift once more,” he explains.
“I lost a bit of lap time there, which would have been enough for pole,” he is convinced. But of course he was aware that he could still improve his previous time. ‘But I never got to the turn,’ he is annoyed. Because George Russell was already standing in the tire wall with his Mercedes.
George Russell’s dramatic crash brought qualifying to an abrupt end F1 USGP pic.twitter.com/RmPZ1jMat8
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2024
Despite missing out on pole, Verstappen is not frustrated: “These things happen in qualifying. It’s not always within your control,” he says calmly. “But generally speaking, the weekend was much more positive for us. At least we were able to fight for pole, which hasn’t happened for a long time.”
In fact, Verstappen’s last real pole was a long time ago: the last time the championship leader took first place – in both the sprint and the grand prix – was at the race in Spielberg. He had already secured the next sprint pole on Friday, but it was just not enough for the double.
Will there be a second victory of the weekend on Sunday?
Of course, the Formula 1 world is now looking forward to Sunday, when the two world championship rivals will start from the front row again, just like in Singapore. Back then, Norris had the better cards, but the sprint victory in Austin showed that Verstappen is a force to be reckoned with again.
He himself says that the car felt “quite good” again in the sprint. For qualifying, he then made a few changes to the car “that will hopefully help”. Verstappen: “Hopefully we can achieve the same.”
That would be the victory, but there is still a race to get through first. To win, Verstappen would have to get past Lando Norris and also keep the Ferraris in the second row at bay, which Marko sees as a major threat. “I think that Ferrari will be strong, similar to the sprint,” says the Austrian.
And according to him, McLaren has apparently made changes to the car “that will have a positive effect, and that will probably also have an impact on tire wear in the race. So it could be a two-way or even a three-way fight.”
Marko: “We’re back in the game”
At least Red Bull is expecting significantly better chances than in the same starting constellation in Singapore. There they had no chance against Norris’ McLaren, but here the RB20 seems to be in good shape again.
But Verstappen has a logical explanation for this: “Singapore was never a good track for us with the slow corners and the bumps. Our car never works there. It’s a completely different track, and we’ve made the car more stable. We can attack corners a bit better, and that also helps the tires a little. That was the biggest improvement.”
For Marko, one thing matters most: ‘I’d say we’re back in the game. We’re in the front row and competing on equal terms. How the race ultimately turns out is another matter…’