Max Verstappen has not finished a session above the P4 all weekend in Monaco; the championship leader said after qualifying for this position on Saturday that he had a “chaos” that would help him understand his title and pole rival. Charles Leclerc in the race.
In a weekend in which teammate Sergio Perez has seemed the more comfortable of the two Red Bull drivers so far, Verstappen was in fourth place ahead of his last race in Q3. After his previous effort, Verstappen was forced to cancel the lap when he encountered Perez and Carlos Sainz’s cars in Portier, leaving the Dutchman reflecting on a tough session.
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“Of course not,” Verstappen said when asked if P4 was what he expected. “It simply came to our notice then. We were trying some things with the car in training, which didn’t give me a good feeling, so we did some things again. But then I also tried to improve it for the classification, and I think it was a little better, but of course Q3 is all you have to go to the limit, right?
“I actually looked a little better,” he added. “I opted for a different strategy in my last race, which I think was good for me because I couldn’t turn on my tires on the first timed lap. So I did the second timed lap after a cool one [a cool-down lap]. It was okay, I was on my lap, everything was fine, but then, of course, I saw the lock on turn 8. No luck, it’s Monaco. We just have to face it, accept it and move on. “
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Verstappen is the latest winner in Monaco, having triumphed here last year after Leclerc was unable to take the exit due to a problem with the gearbox. But with the possibility of rain for Sunday’s race day, Verstappen was asked if he was expecting a tough afternoon from fourth place on the grid, behind Leclerc, Sainz and Perez.
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“It depends on what the weather does,” he said. “A little bit of chaos would be fine, but if not, try to add as many points as possible to my position … Overall, it’s been a slightly more complicated weekend.”
Verstappen currently leads Leclerc by six points in the drivers’ standings.