Max Verstappen: ‘I must determine where to make my passes’ to clinch victory at the F1 Spanish GP

Max Verstappen indicates that he still needs to determine the best places to execute overtakes if he hopes to outpace Lando Norris for the win in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen secured third place during qualifying at Madrid’s new street circuit, finishing just over a tenth behind polesitter Norris and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

When questioned about his chances of contending with the McLaren for the win, the Red Bull driver expressed doubt, citing the challenging nature of overtaking expected at Madring.

“It will be difficult,” he remarked. “Even in the best-case scenario, if you are quicker, it’s hard to pass. There aren't corners where overtaking is feasible. So, you have to depend on others wearing their tires down significantly.

“The long runs were quite challenging, with considerable [tire] degradation for everyone, so that will likely be a crucial factor tomorrow. However, I still need to identify a corner where I can make a pass.”

Verstappen felt reasonably content with his qualifying effort. In terms of lap time gap, this is the closest he has been to pole since Monaco, where he trailed Antonelli by just 0.043s.

“It was okay," he stated. “I mean, I haven’t been in the top three much this year, so I think we had a solid qualifying session.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

“The car, I believe we made some decent advancements, but it was also a case of arriving here in a fairly good setup. What we seem to struggle with is that final sector, where we don’t appear to achieve our deployment as well as our competitors, making it quite challenging to keep pace.

“But overall, I’m quite pleased with how everything unfolded. Each qualifying session, from Q1 to Q2 to Q3, showed nice improvement. There weren't really any significant mistakes, just a few limitations in the car that we are aware of, along with the deployment issue in the final sector where we didn’t seem to fully optimize it. But that’s qualifying. The race will be a different scenario altogether.”

Could Verstappen have anticipated a better outcome, considering he led Q2 by 0.160s over Antonelli?

“I think I was also one of the few who used two sets, so it’s not entirely a fair comparison,” he clarified.