Max Verstappen called for the “stupid s**t” to end as he predicted “hard but fair” racing with Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver will line up third on the grid in Budapest after struggling for grip on his first run in Q3 before being caught up behind Lewis Hamilton, as the Briton played a little gamesmanship.
Verstappen though doesn’t think it made much difference as his car hasn’t quite been in the sweet spot at any point since Friday.
“The whole weekend so far we’ve been a bit behind and it showed again in qualifying,” he admitted.
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“Of course it’s not what we wanted but nevertheless we’re still there in P3, and we’ll see what we can do.
Verstappen does have the advantage of soft tyres for the run to Turn 1 on Sunday in comparison to the Mercedes’ on mediums in front.
The Dutchman explained the switch in strategy in Q2 was forced upon him due to the improvements of the midfield runners after the red flag, but hopes the different approach will pay off.
“It is of course going to be different, the grip was quite a bit higher on these tyres,” he said.
“Naturally a softer tyre will not last as long as the medium, but nevertheless it will give us a good opportunity off the line.
“We’ll find out tomorrow, it’s going to be really hot!”
Of course, after Silverstone, the prospect of Max and Hamilton going wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1 stirs the possibility of more drama.
But the Red Bull driver quickly called for an end to the hype.
“Can we just already stop about this?” he snapped. “We’ve so many f**ing questions about this, it’s just ridiculous.
“Honestly, the whole Thursday we’ve been answering this stupid s**t all the time so can we just stop about it, please?
“We are racers, we will race, and of course we’re going to race hard but fair,” he declared. “So we just keep pushing each other.”
After qualifying, Hamilton was also subject to booing from portions of the Hungaroring crowd, most of whom were likely supporting Verstappen.
“It’s not correct of course,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I think we are drivers and you shouldn’t get disturbed by these kinds of things.
“You should anyway just focus on what you have to do and that’s to deliver in the car.
“Luckily of course we wear helmets actually when you’re driving, so where it matters you don’t hear anything. That’s maybe a bit different to other sports.”
