Max Verstappen experienced a forgettable qualifying round in Brazil. In the run-up to the São Paulo Grand Prix, the reigning champion had to settle for the sixteenth starting position. It was only the seventh time that the Dutchman was eliminated in Q1, but his performance at Interlagos is seen as a low point. A dive into the history books reveals that this is the first time Verstappen failed to advance beyond the first qualifying round purely on his own speed.
Verstappen now has 230 Grand Prix races to his name. He began his illustrious Formula 1 career in 2015 with the then Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s sister team. Even in his debut season, he was eliminated in Q1 only once. During the qualifying round for the Italian Grand Prix, his team was plagued with technical issues. With just a few minutes left on the clock, Verstappen rushed onto the track, but in the process, lost the hood of his STR10. His session was over before it had properly begun. The incident made for spectacular footage, but the Dutchman had to accept the last starting position and a drive-through penalty.
After his move to Red Bull in 2016, a similar scenario unfolded. During his second weekend for the team, in Monaco, he crashed in Q1 and also failed to finish the race – he went off in the thirty-fifth lap just before the casino. In 2017, he was again eliminated in Q1 in Shanghai, this time due to engine trouble. A year later, history seemed to repeat itself when Max Verstappen crashed again in Monaco in the first qualifying round. In 2019, engine problems in Monza threw a spanner in the works – he qualified as nineteenth.
Strategic Choice
In 2020, Verstappen drove a full season for the first time without being eliminated in Q1. However, in the following year, he deliberately chose a Q1 exit in the run-up to the Russian GP. Due to a grid penalty, he would have to start from the back anyway, making it pointless to set a time. Since then, the Dutchman has consistently been among the fastest fifteen – until last weekend in São Paulo.
This time, the problem was not a crash, engine trouble, or strategic choice. The Red Bull RB21 was – even in the hands of Max Verstappen – simply not fast enough to make the second qualifying round. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda didn’t fare much better; he clocked the slowest time of all. This marked the first time since the GP of Japan in 2006 that both Red Bull drivers were stranded in Q1.
