Max Verstappen delighted his home crowd by claiming pole for the Dutch Grand Prix, but the lap to achieve was far from ideal.
The Red Bull driver pipped Lewis Hamilton by just 0.038s at Zandvoort, coincidentally the same amount he improved by on his final run in Q3.
And with the cheers of the Orange Army ringing in his ears, Verstappen was clearly satisfied with his seventh P1 in qualifying this season.
“It’s an amazing feeling to get pole position here,” he told fellow countryman Giedo van der Garde in Parc Ferme.
“The crowd is incredible, the car is really nice to drive, and this track as well – it’s really cool.”
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However, after the session, Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed Verstappen had lost out on some potentially crucial time due to a DRS issue.
“We saw that he lost a lot of speed on the last straight and it seems that the DRS didn’t open properly, so he gave away one and a half tenths,” he said, later calling Max’s lap “a great performance from him under great pressure!”.
Ironically, Verstappen himself was unaware of the extra drag, saying: “Is that so? I don’t know. I need to check because I was not aware my DRS was closed to the line.”
But then the Dutchman revealed an issue he did notice during his lap…
“For me, the problem started earlier out of Turn 3. It’s quite bumpy and I had a double shift,” he explained.
“I was two-tenths up on my lap and then I lost like one-and-a-half tenths all the way to Turn 7. You also use more energy because you are a gear higher – I de-rated as well.”
POLE ? Incredible! The car was on fire today, just flying ? Really great job by @redbullracing and @HondaRacingF1 ? And Orange Army, you are just amazing ? ? #KeepPushing ?? #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/p6VghSkGgY
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 4, 2021
Even so, none of that could stop Verstappen from claiming pole, but though overtaking is expected to be difficult at Zandvoort, Max knows a tough Sunday awaits.
“[Pole] is the best starting position, as passing [in the race] will be difficult,” he said. “I don’t expect it to be an easy race as there are a lot of laps around here.
“The tyres are struggling through the high speed [turns]. But today was good, so I hope we can finish it off tomorrow.”