Max Verstappen has detailed what “killed his lap” in Qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Red Bull driver ultimately set to start P5 for Sunday’s race.
The four-time World Champion featured towards the front in Saturday’s Qualifying session and sat second after the opening runs in Q3 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
But whereas others improved with their second attempts, Verstappen failed to go quicker after running deep at the Turn 13 hairpin through the stadium section having just passed Lando Norris’ McLaren.
It left Verstappen fourth, with the Dutchman set to start fifth after earning himself a one-place grid penalty for a practice collision with Liam Lawson on Friday.
“Already going into Turn 12 I had a car very close to me, so I already lost time there with the dirty air,” said Verstappen.
“Then going into the hairpin, instead of going on the left, I had one car on my right where you normally want to open up the corner.
“It’s a bit of an awkward angle then how you have to go into the hairpin, plus you lose your reference on the right hand side where you are constantly looking, because it’s a difficult corner to get right.
“That then killed my lap but I think for me the most promising thing is of course how we turned it around because in practice I was not very happy. Qualifying was good, we were fighting for pole for sure.”
Red Bull team mate Isack Hadjar will start from P7, despite the Frenchman having a difficult session, particularly with the brakes.
“I just don’t know how to drive it. It’s fast, it’s just not really drivable and I just sucked really,” said Hadjar.
“Very [frustrating] because the car is as competitive as the last couple of weekends and we produce a lap worthy of P-nowhere. To be P7, I’m lucky.”
