If Max Verstappen wants to keep his sights on the world title, he must finish ahead of Lando Norris on Sunday; a good qualification would greatly assist him in this regard on Saturday evening (17:00 UTC). “We have some things to work on, things to improve,” he said after finishing fourth in the sprint race in Qatar.
Verstappen had to concede a point to Norris, who finished third on Saturday. Oscar Piastri won the sprint race. Whether these standings say much about the qualification later today and the race on Sunday is questionable. “We’re going to try to change some things,” Verstappen said in a conversation with F1TV. “You don’t want the car to bounce as it is now. And we’ll have to pay a bit more attention to the front tires.”
At one point, it seemed he could compete for the top three spots in the sprint race. “The start was good, the first few corners too. But then we encountered the same problems as on Friday.”
In the World Championship, he is now 25 points behind Norris and 3 behind Piastri. The qualification is on Saturday evening at 17:00 UTC, and the race is on Sunday afternoon at 13:00 UTC.
