Max Verstappen simply wants to end Lap 1 unscathed after claiming pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman emerged on top in a very wet Q3 session, after the first two parts of qualifying had taken place in drying conditions at Spa-Francorchamps.
And for the Red Bull driver who was born in Belgium, the result was exactly what he and his thousands of fans had hoped for.
“I am very happy with pole position here at a home Grand Prix, but it was not easy out there,” he said.
“It’s an amazing track to drive but very challenging in the wet. In the end, we were first and that’s, of course, the most important.”
Reflecting on the conditions, Verstappen admits the biggest factor was getting the intermediate tyres into their optimum performance window.
“It’s been a really tricky qualifying, hard to keep the car on track,” he acknowledged. “Switching the tyres on as well at the right time.
“It was so important to get the tyres up to temperature because that could give you a few seconds of lap time around a long track like this.
“It was very hard to nail a lap, I was just trying to find the right lines at the right times and judging how fast to go into corners.
“As you can see in Q1, a lot of people including myself who went out on the full wets [tyres] but that was just very slow, really a lot of seconds off the pace.
“So then naturally you switch to the intermediate, but of course that tyre cannot handle a lot of standing water, so again there also it becomes quite tricky.”
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Historically, pole position isn’t always the best starting place at Spa as it offers the second-placed car, in this case, George Russell, a chance to slipstream on the run through Eau Rouge and up to Les Combes.
But Verstappen hopes the weather might intervene to help stave off that threat.
“Tomorrow we don’t know if it will be a dry or wet start,” the Red Bull driver said. “I think if it’s wet I don’t mind if I start first because at least I should have clear vision.
“But I just hope that we have a good and clean start,” he added, no doubt referencing the two collisions with a Mercedes on the opening lap at Silverstone and Hungaroring, “there will be so many different things throughout the race. We just have to try and stay on it.”
Verstappen ended with a shout out to Lando Norris, who has since been cleared to race after a heavy crash at Eau Rouge in qualifying.
“I hope that Lando is feeling okay and that he doesn’t have any serious injuries, because that didn’t look like a good impact at all,” he said. “He’s a good friend of mine so I hope he can race tomorrow.”
