Max Verstappen reflects on a tumultuous Saturday in São Paulo. The Red Bull driver not only had to deal with a challenging sprint race, including a DRS train, but also a five-second time penalty and a postponed qualifying session. Verstappen is disappointed that the qualifying session was literally washed out.
It was a tumultuous Saturday at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace for Max Verstappen. The driver was informed after the sprint race that he had received a five-second penalty for being under the delta time during the safety car period. The Dutchman thus lost his third place to Charles Leclerc. Subsequently, the qualifying session for the main race was both literally and figuratively washed out.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t hit the track this afternoon to run the qualifiers,” Max Verstappen tells the assembled media, after it was announced that the session had been cancelled. The Dutchman was looking forward to the qualifying session, especially since the RB20 proved fast during the sprint race. “Our pace was quite strong in the sprint, but it was just unfortunate that we got stuck in the DRS train, so we had to be patient and couldn’t really do much,” says Verstappen.
Disappointment Over Penalty
The Red Bull driver eventually broke free from the DRS train, overtaking Leclerc in the eighteenth lap. “We came out well from turn three, so I was able to overtake and I felt like I could compete with the cars ahead of me,” says Verstappen. “Unfortunately, we ran out of laps and encountered yellow flags.”
“It was a shame we got a penalty, but for me, it was a positive race and we had the speed,” continues the Dutchman. “We were in the fight and that was good, because that wasn’t the case in the previous races. The weather is currently very unpredictable and we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to be very tight, but hopefully, we’ll have another positive day.” Verstappen’s Sunday will certainly start early, as the postponed qualifying is scheduled for 7:30 local time.
