Max Verstappen has qualified his Red Bull Racing RB13 in fifth position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, narrowly ahead of his Friday practice pace-setting team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo.
Verstappen, who was fourth after Saturday’s Free Practice 3, had been off the pace of his team-mate on Friday but managed to strike the right balance in qualifying to start tomorrow’s race as the lead Red Bull driver.
“For me it was actually a very positive Qualifying,” says Verstappen. “The whole weekend I have been struggling a lot with the car and I just couldn’t really get the balance right but we managed to turn it around and the car was feeling good in Qualifying when it matters.
“Q1 and Q2 were actually very good but in Q3 it’s always harder for us to step up by four or five tenths like Ferrari and Mercedes as we don’t have that extra engine mode.
“I think fourth was definitely possible but I changed the front wing on my final run and it seems that I got too much oversteer from that, but we can still be pleased.”
Verstappen knows it will be difficult to overtake at the Hungaroring but he hopes to get a good getaway to put himself into a good position for hopefully a podium finish, which would only be his second of the season.
“We have made a good step forward and we are heading in the right direction for sure. It is difficult to say how tomorrow will go and it’s always hard to overtake here but with a good start and maybe an undercut there are many possibilities.
“It will be an interesting race and I’m actually quite confident for tomorrow.”
