F1 legend reacts as Max Verstappen secures pole position for Qatar GP
Former F1 world champion Damon Hill complimented Red Bull driver Max Verstappen after the latter took pole position for the main race at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday night. However, following the qualification session, he was demoted to P2. The Dutch driver made a stunning comeback this weekend after he finished a lowly, by his standards, P8 in the Sprint race behind the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
However, the Austrian team made some crucial changes to the RB20 before the all-important qualifying hour which worked wonders for the balance of the car. Verstappen surprised everyone as he finished 0.055s ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell, who had been quick all weekend.
Verstappen's performance was appreciated by Damon Hill, who took to his Instagram stories to say,
"Great Pole 👏"
In the post-qualifying press conference, the Red Bull driver reflected on his fastest time over one lap and said:
"Just felt a bit more hooked up on entry, mid-corner, like everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. So I felt it straight away from lap one that, yeah, it all just felt a bit more consistent. And that's exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive."
Max Verstappen on his incident with George Russell in the Qatar GP qualifying
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen said he was trying to avoid a major crash, when asked about his incident in Qualifying with George Russell in the final sector.
Speaking with Sky Sports, the four-time F1 world champion said he was "not there to annoy people," in reference to the incident. He said,
"I'm not there to annoy people, because if I follow my delta I'm going to screw over two other cars, and I think I'm at the stage of the championship that it's not necessary to be arguing with other drivers. So I'm like, whatever, I just follow the guys ahead of me, try to sort myself out.
"At the same time, I think George had different plans. He wanted to get his tires up to temp a little bit more. So he then wanted to of course go around me. That's what we just have with these delta times, that one tries to stick to it, the other one backs out because he sees the two cars in front that he doesn't want to annoy as well, because otherwise, they will struggle to get their tires ready for the lap."
However, the race stewards were not convinced with Max Verstappen's justification for blocking George Russell and gave him a one-place grid penalty for the start of Sunday's race. The decision also added a penalty point to his FIA super license.