Why Verstappen was ‘shouting on the radio’ in Brazil F1 qualifying
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The three-time world champion beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole position by nearly three tenths of a second just before a massive rainstorm hit the Interlagos track, resulting in qualifying ending prematurely.Verstappen was not completely happy the balance of his car throughout the session and reported his RB19 was “jumping like a kangaroo” over the bumps during the early stages of Q1. Nevertheless, Verstappen was able to secure his 11th pole of an incredible 2023 campaign. “We lined up for Q3 and you could see the sky was just black. I was like: ‘Well, if that rain hits, it is going to be a lot’,” the Dutchman explained. “We went for the lap. The first sector felt all right and the rest felt shocking. The rain was coming in. It was not hitting the track yet but the wind increased a lot and changed direction to a tailwind in the middle sector.”I was shouting on the radio saying: ‘What the hell happened?’ We were nowhere, but the team said everyone was struggling. I have never seen such an influence on car balance.”
Verstappen admitted he was not sure he would have taken pole without the sudden weather change. “The gaps were just very, very close,” he said. “I think we were quite competitive so I think no one really knew who was going to be first in Q3 if it would have been a normal session without the weather incoming.Related F1 team bosses share details of possible sprint format changes Could Mercedes F1 boss Wolff join Ratcliffe’s Man Utd bid? “That makes it quite interesting for Sunday as well to see how everything will evolve with the long-run pace.“I didn’t even have a lap on a soft tyre. So naturally in Q1 there’s always a bit more margin in your lap time, and it was extremely tight so if you didn’t do a good lap, you were out. “So that’s why I think many people put like two sets [of tyres] or even three sets, some of them. That just continued through the qualifying.“There was always this threat of rain. But I think in Q1 and Q2, it was quite clear that it was still not happening. But because of the pace of everyone else you were forced to put new tyres on basically.”
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