Max Verstappen is reasonably satisfied with his qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday. The Dutchman of Red Bull Racing had to settle for third place behind the Mercedes.
“My lap in Q3 was pretty fast. I missed some grip behind, but that took me little time. It was a good qualifying in itself,” said Verstappen afterwards at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Verstappen clocked 1.27.678 and was not much slower than pole sitter Lewis Hamilton (1.27.264) and number two Valtteri Bottas (1.27.553). Earlier on Saturday he was the fastest in the third free practice.
“We’ll see how tomorrow’s race goes. It’s hard to say if we can follow Mercedes. They’ve found speed today, but this track is tough on the tires,” said Verstappen.
“We have several tires left that we can try a bit more with, so who knows what could happen. I’ll try to stay close to them, but of course that’s not going to be easy.”
The race starts on Sunday at 3.10 p.m. Last year, Verstappen finished fourth behind Hamilton, Bottas and Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver will have to come a long way this year, as he only qualified twelfth.
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