A smiling Max Verstappen.
Narrowing pipping McLaren to pole position at Imola before winning the Grand Prix by a measly 0.725s ahead of Lando Norris, Max Verstappen has doubled down on his claim he’d rather be miles ahead.
Verstappen dominated the first two years of F1’s ground-effect aerodynamic cars after a fierce battle in 2021, where he went head-to-head with Lewis Hamilton for the World title, exchanging blows and claiming top positions.
Max Verstappen: I would rather qualify with a lot in front
With an impressive record of 15 victories out of 22 Grands Prix in F1 2022, he sealed the World title in Japan with a remarkable four races remaining.
After a year, he successfully achieved it by securing six Grands Prix victories. His second place finish in Qatar’s Sprint race provided him with the crucial points needed to defend his title. Throughout the season, he dominated by winning an impressive 19 out of 22 Grands Prix.
This season he’s already on five wins from seven races but it’s by no means yesteryear’s cruise as Red Bull are under pressure from McLaren and Ferrari.
The 26-year-old acknowledged that he would prefer to secure victories with substantial leads, even if it may not provide the most exciting experience for the fans.
“At least 20 seconds!” he said in Miami to Sky F1. “I’ve raced so much in my life in close combat. I enjoy a lot more if we can actually nail the car and are 100 per cent sure that we can win by a big margin but, of course, that’s not what fans want to hear.”
At Imola, he strengthened his position by securing pole position with a narrow 0.074s lead over Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
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He expressed his preference to qualify eight-tenths ahead, although he acknowledged its impossibility. “Experiencing a turnaround like we did is truly delightful. During qualifying, I was genuinely thrilled and upon learning that we secured pole position, my happiness knew no bounds.”
“It was fantastic that the match was so close and required us to give our all. However, I still can’t help but emphasize my preference for qualifying with a significant lead!”
“That’s just the way it goes, you know? Sometimes, you have weekends where everything clicks and the car becomes absolutely incredible to drive. It doesn’t matter what you do, it just feels amazing. During those moments, you can pull off some truly extraordinary laps, like ones we’ve seen in the past.”
In the closing laps of Sunday’s Grand Prix, Verstappen had to unleash his exceptional laps as Norris closed in on him, running within the DRS range of the World Champion.
Although the McLaren driver wasn’t able to get close enough to challenge for the lead, Verstappen still had to hold his nerve as he took the chequered flag by 0.725s.
Despite facing various issues with the car during practice sessions, the Dutchman’s resilience impressed him as he applauded Red Bull’s fightback over the weekend.
He stated that this year has certainly been a turning point in terms of our ability to improve. Overall, we have had a great car this year. However, for some reason, we didn’t manage to get a head start on things.
After the qualifying round, things appeared to be more conventional. However, it is possible that we were not fully prepared for the race as our performance with the Hard tyres was not optimal. Throughout the race, I didn’t feel like the tyres were performing well on our car. This is an aspect that we need to analyze and understand.
“However, it is evident that the teams in our vicinity are making progress and performing exceptionally well. Hence, we must also strive to identify areas for improvement within our own team.”
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