‘It’s a motivation boost’ – Verstappen admits surprise over P2 result in China Sprint Qualifying

Max Verstappen was “very happy” to take P2 during Sprint Qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix, with the Dutchman admitting that the result acts as a “motivation boost” for the team on a day where he did not expect a front row to be possible.

Having been unable to get a soft tyre lap on the board earlier on Friday in the sole practice session of the weekend – which was disrupted by a late red flag – Verstappen entered Sprint Qualifying without a prior reference for a flying lap.

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Despite this, the Red Bull driver only narrowly missed out on taking pole for Saturday’s Sprint, having lost out to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by just 0.018s in SQ3.

Asked afterwards if missing P1 by such a small margin was frustrating – or whether he was pleased with the performance given that the squad have lacked pace in comparison to the likes of McLaren so far – Verstappen responded: “I’m very happy. I do think that in the first practice we were quite a bit off, so I’m very happy to be on the front row, honestly.

“The lap was very good, it’s always very tough when you go from a medium to a soft [tyre] to nail the lap with no references. I mean of course when you look at it, it was 18 [hundredths] off pole, but I don’t think we should have even been on the front row anyway so I’m very happy to be second.”

In terms of whether the team had made many changes to the RB21 prior to the session, Verstappen added: “Nothing dramatic, because I don’t think the balance is massively off. We’re just too slow, I would say!

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“But this is good for us, it’s a little motivation boost I think as well for everyone that we keep nailing the laps, keep trying to maximise everything that we’ve got, and you need to do that as well at the same time when you’re maybe struggling a little bit more for pace.”

With that in mind, when pushed on how much he had overperformed, the reigning World Champion said: “It’s always very hard to say, but I was happy with what I was doing there in [Sprint] Qualifying.”

After looking strong during first practice, McLaren ultimately ended Sprint Qualifying in P3 and P6 with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris respectively. Despite this, Verstappen believes that the Woking-based outfit will still be a threat during Saturday’s Sprint.

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“I think they looked very fast up until that last run, so I think it will be very hard to keep them behind, but hopefully it will be fun,” the 27-year-old commented. “We are all… I wouldn’t say close, but at least we can race a bit around. That would be nice for me.”