Max Verstappen has explained what caused his dramatic slide during the final segment of qualifying in Abu Dhabi, with the world champion admitting that he expects McLaren to be “very hard to beat” come race day as he lines up in P5 on the grid.
After looking fast in the initial stages of Q3, Verstappen put his Red Bull into provisional pole on the first runs – but en route suffered quite a moment at the last turn, resulting in him very nearly losing the car.
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It was Lando Norris who went on to set the pace in the final laps, with Verstappen ending up in fifth place behind the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg in fourth, though the German was later hit with a three-place grid drop for the race. Asked later on for his feelings on the session, the 27-year-old said: “How do I feel? In a way relieved, because it’s the final qualifying of the year!
“The qualifying itself, I think it was quite decent but you never really had a good [comparison] because many people kept on aborting on their new tyres, so every time when I was P1 people were on scrubbed [tyres] and I don’t think that of course gave a fair performance assessment, even though I think even if I didn’t drop it in the last corner I think I could have fought for second, but that’s not how it works in Formula 1.
