Late Max Verstappen breakthrough found after ‘terrible’ Mexican GP weekend

Max Verstappen has revealed that he and Red Bull “made some final adjustments” to help turn around a “terrible weekend” at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Verstappen recovered from having his first Q3 lap deleted due to a track limits breach to secure a front-row start in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with a lap 0.225 seconds slower than polesitter Carlos Sainz.

Max Verstappen hails ‘incredible result’ after ‘terrible’ Mexican GP weekend

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

It came after a disastrous Friday for the reigning three-time World Champion, whose running was severely limited by a series of power unit complaints.

Red Bull confirmed on Saturday morning that the team had changed Verstappen’s engine for another from his power unit pool – therefore avoiding a grid penalty – due to “intake air circuit leakage which could not be thoroughly resolved ahead of the third practice session.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying, Verstappen hailed second on the grid as an “incredible result” after his restricted Friday running left him with no useful data.

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He said: “Yesterday, I did four laps: two laps on lower fuel and two laps on high fuel, so it was basically just a complete write off. No information.

“So, for me, FP3 was very crucial. I tried to do as many laps as I could.

“We were behind. The car was not feeling great and everything was just very difficult, so I knew that it was going to be a tough qualifying but we made some final adjustments and it all started to feel better.

“But to be on the front row, I think it’s an incredible result for us.

“I barely did any laps [on Friday], so I think it could only go better really.

“We were massively on the back foot. So far, of course, it’s been quite a terrible weekend in that sense.

“But to be on the front row with the difficulties that we had, I think, showed that we stayed calm and just tried to look into the data to try and understand the car a bit more and try to just be a little bit more competitive.”

Red Bull showed improved performance at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, where Verstappen took his first victory of any kind since June’s Spanish GP by winning the sprint race.

Verstappen admitted that the Red Bull RB20’s pace is an unknown ahead of the race with Ferrari and McLaren looking strong at various stages of the weekend, adding: “It is. I don’t expect miracles.

“I think in Austin Ferrari was really, really fast. Of course, maybe that weekend McLaren was not as strong but then in the race, I think they were so competitive.

“So from my side, I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

Helmut Marko, the Red Bull adviser, agreed with Verstappen’s assessment that second on the grid represented a fine result.

And he paid tribute to the World Champion for keeping his head following a poor start to the weekend, telling ORF: “He kept his nerve and the car went in the right direction.

“The team did an excellent job and second place is very, very good.”

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