Max Verstappen admits splitting the two Ferrari’s represented the “perfect session” for Red Bull’s first qualifying with Honda.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit never looked a major threat in Australia, but it was a strong final effort for the Dutchman which saw him climb onto the second row ahead of Charles Leclerc.
While it remains to be seen if the result was circuit-specific, with Ferrari expected to be much faster, Verstappen certainly wasn’t complaining.
“In qualifying, I would say it was quite a perfect session in terms of what we could do with performance and in terms of what we have,” he said. “[Even if] the whole run-up to it wasn’t perfect.”
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The 21-year-old also didn’t want to blame Honda for the 0.8s gap to Mercedes when considered where the deficit was.
“It is difficult to say with those cars as you are going so fast through a corner so it doesn’t feel too bad,” he claimed. “But if you are missing overall speed that is how it goes.”
“We will find out tomorrow exactly how competitive we are but it seems very smooth and we are working really well together soI really have nothing to complain to them about.
“They [Honda] are working really hard and really focused so we had no issues which is great.
“It gives you a really positive feeling and enjoyment as well while driving.”
As for teammate Pierre Gasly, he was surprisingly knocked out in Q1, as Red Bull opted not to complete a second run.
“I don’t really want to comment on that. We decided to do this, they gave me a cut-off time which I made, but I think we just got caught out by the track evolution which was a lot bigger than previous years,” he explained.
“There is no-one really to blame. It is just a miscalculation, and we just need to review the way we approach things and maybe be a bit more careful in our approach.”
