Max Verstappen (5th): "Otherwise, 3rd place might have been possible"

Max Verstappen surprised himself in qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as he admitted after the time chase. The fast Dutchman ended up with the third-fastest lap and was only two hundredths slower than Lando Norris, who finished fourth. He was 22 thousandths off third-placed world championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Could the Red Bull Racing star not have achieved more? "We really struggled with the car and things went a bit better in qualifying, but I'm still a bit surprised at how small the gap to George Russell's top time was. It ended up being just over three tenths after being six or seven tenths slower the whole of the previous weekend," he said.

Focus on tyre degradation

"Yes, our car is just a bit sensitive, but I think overall we can be quite happy with our pace," Verstappen continued. "On my last lap, I slipped a bit too much in the final sector for some unknown reason. I wanted to find more time, but I lost some time in the tenth and eleventh corners, so I took it a bit easier in the last hairpin. Otherwise third place might have been possible," he sighed.

In the same breath, however, the 71-time GP winner also made it clear: "I don't think this would make a big difference in terms of the race result, because it will be all about tyre degradation, pit stops and strategy. We'll see how it goes, to be honest all the tyres felt bad, I guess everyone will struggle. The question will be who struggles the most."

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