Max Verstappen hopes Mercedes can do him a “favour” after his worst qualifying of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The championship leader will start P10 on Sunday in Budapest after a disastrous Q3 that saw Max make a mistake at Turn 2 on the first flying lap before suffering an engine issue on his second run.
“I don’t think it’s a big issue, but something we couldn’t solve on track basically. It’s very unfortunate,” he told Sky Sports post-session.
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“Of course, I still would have liked to start in the top three and I think we definitely we had the pace for it because even in Q2 we looked very strong, comfortably.
“So a good turnaround, but unfortunately the little glitch we had makes us start 10th.”
Verstappen also praised the performance improvements Red Bull made to his car following Friday Practice.
“I think the turnaround from yesterday was amazing, the guys and girls back at the factory as well, there was a lot of analysing going on to understand what was not really working that well yesterday,” he said.
After we found good pace today, not being able to push for pole is very disappointing ?
There’s a challenge ahead now but we’ll keep pushing to move up again tomorrow ?#KeepPushing pic.twitter.com/gf9T1KiQqG
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) July 30, 2022
“In a way, that’s positive about today. We understood I guess what went wrong and the car was so much better today in terms of handling on a track that doesn’t really suit us.
“So that’s a big positive for the rest of the year, that even on a track where we are not that strong that we can be competitive.”
As for Sunday, on a circuit that is notoriously tricky to overtake at, Verstappen admits it could be a long 70 laps…
“It can be a tough one if you’re stuck,” he said. “I hope of course not too long, but we have to just stay calm and wait for our moments to go forward.
“It depends a bit on what is happening in front of you, behind you as well,” he said. “So we just need to be on it and be flexible.”
George Russell is the type of guy to apologise for getting pole ?
? x @SkySportsF1 #HungarianGP #F1 @GeorgeRussell63 pic.twitter.com/kJR6Pc3dXq
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2022
Also keeping the Dutchman upbeat was seeing George Russell beat the two Ferraris to claim his first pole in Formula 1, a position he hopes the Briton can keep.
“I was surprised to see it,” Verstappen said of the result. “They [Mercedes] were close but I didn’t expect them to make that jump in Q3, but it was nice for me as well.
“They need to do me a favour tomorrow,” he smiled, “that is more important.”