Close Call for Verstappen; Perez Criticizes Steward Decisions

Verstappen escaped a crash in qualifying, while Perez voiced frustration over track limit rulings affecting his performance.

Max Verstappen described his incident during Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying as “spicy.”

The world champion approached the final corner during his first Q3 laps when he experienced severe oversteer, sending the Red Bull towards the pit wall.

He avoided collision and secured a provisional pole, but the cars behind, including McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, were on used tires for their initial runs, while Verstappen used a fresh set.

When the field switched to new tires for their second fast laps, Verstappen dropped to fifth, joined on the third row by Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

“At one point, facing the wall, I thought: ‘This might be spicy, but it’s not fast.’ All weekend, we never found the right balance. Maybe we looked good in Q1 and Q2, but most of the time, others aborted their laps, had new tires, and every session started with those behind me on used tires when I had new ones.”

“Q3 was fine, but not to my liking. The car never felt right in terms of grip, always tricky in certain corners, making consistency very difficult.”

“I tried to adapt in some corners, but then something else would happen in another corner, making things challenging.”

“The front end was stronger [than in practice], so that was a bit more positive, but it’s the shift in balance we experience in corners at certain circuits that makes the situation slightly more restrictive.”

“I should have been on the front row, but it’s still not so bad because we know that if we fix our issues, we’ll gain a lot of lap time. However, solving those issues is key, as our balance shift makes it difficult to find a good compromise with the tools we have in the car.”

“We need to work on that for next year, but I’m confident we have a fast race car.”

Sergio Perez made it to Q3, finishing 10th, but expressed frustration over the stewards’ decision to initially delete his Q1 lap, which was later reinstated.

“It was a shame to lose the lap for track limits because I had to use a new set of tires for nothing since my time was restored. That compromised everything we wanted to do. I wish I had that new set of tires to defend better in Q3.”

Rumors grow that this was his final qualifying session for Red Bull, but the Mexican remains resolute.

“The main thing is to focus on tomorrow, try to have a good race, and that’s the primary goal.”