Once again, it was as surprising as it was astonishing, the strides Max Verstappen managed to make in terms of speed and balance with Red Bull’s RB21 from Friday to Saturday in Imola. What has often been the case this season happened again: transforming a seemingly hopeless situation into one with perspective within a day. Although it did not lead to pole position for the GP Emilia-Romagna, it did lead to satisfaction. And enjoyment, as Verstappen revealed after the qualification.
Coming in second is not what the Dutchman generally aims for. But in times of McLaren’s dominance and Fridays when the weekend often starts off difficult for Red Bull, a P2 in the qualification is certainly not bad. Therefore, despite narrowly missing the pole, Verstappen was in a reasonably good mood during the press conference in Imola.
“Compared to Friday, we were able to improve a lot, the car was much nicer to drive,” Verstappen said about the strides he and the team made in Imola. The fact that he was the fastest after the first run of Q3 gave hope for pole. But Verstappen noticed a problem. “The tires were overheating as I wanted to drive faster. Sector 1 was still fine, after that I started to understeer. That was a shame.”
Race Strategy
Starting from pole and thus being able to keep Oscar Piastri behind him, partly because there is only one DRS zone in Imola; that would have been a nice battle plan, but it will no longer apply from P2. “I just have to have as good a start as possible and a good first lap and then we’ll see.” The speed in the long runs was better at McLaren on Friday anyway. “But our car was better today than it was on Friday.” And so? “Hopefully we can be competitive.”
