Max Verstappen second fastest in Styrian wet qualifying: 'Very good'

Published on 11 July 2020 by Mike Motilall

Max Verstappen qualified second fastest at the Styrian Grand Prix. The start of the qualifying session, on a soaking wet Red Bull Ring, was delayed by 45 minutes. When the drivers were finally let loose, Max finished every qualifying segment, under extreme weather conditions, second fastest. In the closing stages, Max spun in an attempt to better his time, but to no avail. Lewis Hamilton was in a class of his own and snatched pole by as much as a 1.2 second lead on Verstappen. Carlos Sainz came in third in his McLaren.

“I think overall quali was good”, says Max once he is out of his car. “Q1 was so busy and I really didn’t have a free lap. Towards the end of Q2 it started to rain a bit more. And immediately sector two became trickier. In Q3 it started to rain a bit more. In Q3 we were struggling a bit more with the wet conditions and I was aquaplaning a lot more, there was a lot of standing water so I couldn’t really put the power down in some combined corners. I I tried to stay close to the guy ahead of me so I could stay in his tracks so I had a little less water.”

Max agrees that the conditions were difficult on track: "You couldn’t see a thing, visibility was horrible even when you are within six seconds of a car ahead of you it’s difficult to see the breaking zones. It was not very enjoyable out there, but it was the same for everyone.”

In his last flying lap, Max was busy improving his time when he goes wide in Turn nine and spins. The Dutchman says this about the incident: “I guess it was Seb going in the pits because you can’t see the colour of the car, I understeered because of it and I went a bit wide coming onto the kerbs on the exit and then I lost it, like a four wheel drift into the last corner but it was not that good of a lap to beat Lewis. But to be second is alright.”

Tomorrow dry spells are expected. Max expects to be able to score then as well: “In the dry we have a good chance, so I am looking forward to that.”

After the cancellation of the third free practice, the start of qualifying is also delayed by forty five minutes because of the persisting downpour. At the end of the pitlane, a long queue starts to form when it is announced that the session will shortly get underway. When the lights turn green, all the drivers make it to the track on the full wets.

“I cannot see anything”, says Max on the radio when he starts his first flying lap. He starts cautiously with a 1:24.925 which puts him eight fastest. The drivers keep doing their laps and the times starts dropping. With ten more minutes on the clock in Q1, Verstappen briefly takes pole with a 1:20.621, but is then quickly relegated to the bottom of the timesheet.

In the last minutes, Antonio Giovinazzi spins at Turn nine and hits the guard rail rear first. The Italian parks his damaged Alfa Romeo trackside not much later. This brings out the red flag which also signals the end of the first part of qualifying. Just before the red flag, Max betters his time (1:18.297) and with a second fastest time he safely moves up to the second part of qualifying. Dropouts after the first part of qualifying are: Kimi Raikkonen (P16), Sergio Perez (P17), Nicolas Latifi (P18), Antonio Giovinazzi (P19) and Romain Grosjean (P20).

Max kicks off the second part of qualifying with the fastest time (1:18.155) in his second flying lap. And yet again the times keep tumbling down. He manages to chip away a bit of the time he set and reinforces his grip on the top spot. Not much later though, Hamilton betters the time set by Max.

Charles Leclerc met his match in Q2 and had to settle for the eleventh spot. George Russell, in Q2 for the first time ever, qualifies decently in twelfth in his Williams. Lance Stroll, Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen are the other casualties in the second part of qualifying.

At the start of Q3 is has started to rain. Max is the first to be waiting at the red light at the end of the pitlane and is subsequently also the first to head out on track. Verstappen immediately tops the board. Despite the fact that Max has bettered his time (1:21.570), Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton are slightly faster.

Not much later, Max improves his time by a full second and works his way up to second place. In his last flying lap, he is busy with bettering his time but encounters Sebastian Vettel who is about to head into the pits. Verstappen runs wide at Turn nine and drifts into the final corner causing him to lose momentum to improve his time. Hamilton manages to better his time once more and takes pole by no less than a 1.2 second lead on Verstappen. Carlos Sainz has had the best qualifying in his Formula 1-career with a third place ranking. Bottas is fourth fastest, followed by Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris. Alexander Albon comes in seventh fastest, while Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel round out the top ten.

Tomorrow at 15:10 hrs. the Styrian Grand Prix will get underway.

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