At the Chinese F1 Sprint, rain disrupted Red Bull’s qualifying, highlighting issues with tires and traffic for Verstappen and Pérez.
Max Verstappen qualified fourth for the F1 Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix after several track exits and two cancelled laps. The Red Bull driver admits he struggled to get his tires to work in the rain but is not worried about the inherent pace of his RB20.
“It was incredibly slippery, I had a lot of trouble getting temperature into the tires,” Verstappen was surprised. “That’s why it was difficult to keep the car on the track, the tires never really warmed up and it was like driving on ice.”
“I think that’s also why we deserve where we are on the grid because it didn’t work for me in the rain. In the dry, it looked much better, and I am obviously happy with that.”
He now expects a challenging Sprint from the inside of the second row at the start: “It’s not ideal to start from the inside here because there’s less grip with what is painted on the tarmac, so we’ll have to try to get the best start possible, and it will be one long stint on a set of tires, but that makes it interesting.”
Sergio Pérez will start sixth after also missing his end of Q3, initially being the first driver to approach the two-minute mark in the rain.
“Things were going well at the start, but with the traffic and slowdowns, we failed to make a good last lap. It was hard to get through the last turn and I went off,” Pérez stated, who is nevertheless not worried.
“I think we’re in a good situation, we were confident immediately, it was a good time with the car and we seem competitive, so all of this is very promising.”
Red Bull Stumbles in Rainy Shanghai Qualifier. Red Bull Stumbles in Rainy Shanghai Qualifier
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