Max Verstappen praised the performance of his Red Bull after claiming fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race in Baku.
The Dutchman unexpectedly led the disrupted Q2 session following Charles Leclerc’s crash at Turn 8, raising hopes of a possible pole challenge in the top 10 shootout.
It wasn’t to be though as the straight-line speed of the Mercedes and Ferrari was simply too strong, leaving Verstappen fourth fastest.
“We were positively surprised that we were so competitive in qualifying and the second row of the grid is not bad,” he commented afterwards.
“Everything was going quite smoothly, but in Q3 we were running a different strategy as I only had one set of tyres so I was on my own.”
And being out of sync with the rest of the pack proved a big disadvantage as Verstappen explained.
“Around this track, it is very painful to be on your own and you, of course, lose lap time to others who have a tow,” he noted.
“Even compared to my own lap in Q2 I was losing around two and a half tenths on the main straight and you can also gain a tenth or two on the other straights having a car six or seven seconds ahead because these cars have so much drag.”
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Still, that isn’t disheartening Max, who will hope to continue his strong start to 2019 and capitalise on any opportunity presented in the race.
“I pushed everything I could out of my final lap and it was pretty good,” he said. “I think we could have fought for pole if we were in that train of cars, but at least we know the car is working well.
“It’s always a crazy one here and for sure the race won’t be won at Turn 1. It’s all pretty close and from fourth, we can still fight for the race.”
