Max Verstappen admitted that he was disappointed to find himself only fourth on the grid, but has high hopes of his race pace for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing driver was unable to match the pace of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo during qualifying, ending just over two-tenths of a second adrift, which left him fourth compared to second for the Australian, and down on where he was hoping to be after showing strong pace in all sessions up to the qualifying session.
With the Dutchman set to start on the Supersoft tyre, Verstappen is confident that the strong high fuel runs he had earlier in the weekend continue during Sunday’s race as he aims for another trip to the podium.
“Qualifying wasn’t fantastic and I am disappointed with my starting position,” said Verstappen. “The car felt good throughout the weekend during the practice sessions and I was very comfortable in the car but it didn’t come together for qualifying.
“I was struggling throughout the whole session to warm up the front tyres and the balance wasn’t quite right, there was a lot of front wheel locking so the lap just didn’t come together, which is a shame.
“We have good race pace and we also have a different strategy to Mercedes as we start on the supersofts, so we’ll see how it’s going to work out during the race, hopefully we can improve on P4.”
