Watch: Max Verstappen goes up to George Russell to congratulate him on securing pole position for the F1 Las Vegas GP
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was one of the first to congratulate Mercedes driver George Russell after the latter secured pole position for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix. The British driver had looked competitive throughout the weekend given the W15's capability of switching on the tires in the colder conditions in the Sin City.
Despite struggling in the practice sessions, Verstappen once again pulled out an excellent lap to finish P5 in the qualifying session on Friday night ahead of title rival Lando Norris.
In a video floating on social media, Verstappen could be seen congratulating George Russell in the parc ferme in Las Vegas while making his way to the FIA garage.
While speaking to Sky Sports, the Red Bull driver spoke about their issues with the rear wing throughout the weekend and how it impacted him over one lap on Friday, saying:
"We don't have a Monza-spec wing, which you need here. That's something we opted to do from the start but we have lacked a rear wing like that for three years now for budget cap reasons. It's maybe something we have to reconsider. It's not really efficient to race like this.
"It's still two races where you are leaving lap time on the table. We will have a look for the future but there are only one more year of these regulations, so it doesn't make sense to make it maybe."
Max Verstappen gives his take on finishing ahead of McLaren in Las Vegas
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated he was surprised to finish ahead of the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the qualifying session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
As quoted by the aforementioned source, the three-time F1 world champion said that he "tried to do the best" to extract the maximum from the RB20 despite their challenges:
"We tried to do the best we could. We worked well together. We tried a lot of different things to see what was the right direction. I think what we did was in the right direction but still clearly not enough to fight for pole.
"I'm still quite happy. We are still in front of McLaren, which for me is a bit of a surprise but I'm quite happy with how qualifying went and my laps."
Max Verstappen still has an opportunity to wrap up the title on Saturday night as he starts ahead of Lando Norris on the grid and only needs to maintain his position and finish ahead of the British driver.
The McLaren driver needs to have a gap of more than three points to continue the championship to the next round in Qatar next weekend and give himself a shot at his first title.