F1 | Azerbaijan GP | Verstappen: "It was a stupid qualifying, so unfortunate"
Qualifying in Baku ended with a third place for a disappointed Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver will start behind Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.
The qualifying session in Baku, Azerbaijan, ended with a third place conquered by Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver will start behind Charles Leclerc, who managed to take the pole position, and Lewis Hamilton, who put his Mercedes in second palce.
At the end of the session Verstappen spoke to the Formula 1 microphones expressing all his disappointment for the result he carried home.
The Dutchman, without the red flag caused by Tsunoda and Sainz, could have fought for pole position.
🗣 "I was very confident that we definitely could fight for pole"
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 5, 2021
Verstappen rues late red flag which scuppered his final attempt at pole position 😣#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 #F1 https://t.co/3PntwOuyDZ
"[It was] just a stupid qualifying, to be honest," - Verstappen said - "But anyway it is what it is, still P3."
"We had a good car, good recovery from FP3, of course, I think everything was working out fine."
"But all this shit is all the time happening - I think, in Q3, then it's just unfortunate, but is a street circuit so these things can to happen. And like I said, our car is strong so I just hope tomorrow in the race , we can look after our tires and score good points," he added.
A third place is not bad at all, even if Max Verstappen was expecting a bit more after the good pace that Red Bull semeed to have during this two days of free practice.
"We are still up there," - number 33 said - "Of course we would like to start a bit further ahead but there is still a lot to play for."
"As you can see in qualifying, a lot of things are happening - so maybe in the race, these things can happen again. Let's hope for just a bit of a clean start and we'll see from there."
He seemed pretty disappointed but he's looking forward to tomorrow, as he said through an offical Red Bull Statement: "With three different teams at the front it should also be a pretty interesting race strategy wise as well and it is also about keeping your tyres alive."
We were quite unfortunate with all the red flags, but these things happen on a street circuit. We’ll still be starting from 3rd and have a strong race pace, so still all to play for #KeepPushing 🇦🇿 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/PYMaNMgkon
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) June 5, 2021
