Max Verstappen secured a surprising pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix, marking a remarkable turnaround from his struggling Sprint race performance where he finished eighth.

The dramatic improvement came after Red Bull made significant setup changes following the Sprint race, where Verstappen had been unable to challenge even mid-field runners like Nico Hulkenberg.

The four-time world champion edged out George Russell by just 0.055 seconds in the final qualifying session. The turnaround was achieved through collaborative efforts between trackside engineers and factory-based analysts, including real-time simulator work.

"Everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. I felt it straight away from lap one that it all just felt a bit more consistent. That's exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive," Verstappen explained.

Despite the qualifying success, Verstappen remains cautious about race day performance. The significant gap in pace during the Sprint race has left questions about Red Bull's true race pace for Sunday's Grand Prix.

"It's still a bit of a question mark," Verstappen admitted. "This is great, to be on pole, but I'm not sure yet if it's going to be enough to really be the outright fastest, but we'll find out tomorrow."

Related Articles

Previous Articles