Four times World Champion Max Verstappen took a surprising pole position for the F1 British GP after struggling for pace on Friday. The Red Bull driver took his fourth pole of 2025 with an impressive final lap to round off his Q3 stint ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri.
An unexpected performance
Verstappen was positively impressed by his run especially considering the peculiar track conditions, as he commented after Qualifying for the F1 British GP.
“Pretty good. It was not easy out there to produce a consistent lap time just because of the wind, the gusts as well that you got out there. The car was moving around a lot even just on straights, so sometimes a bit unpredictable in places because of it.
“But luckily, that last lap came together quite nicely. Just had to commit a lot in the high speed with this low downforce that we have on the car, which we just tried to build up on. Luckily in Q3, that worked out.”
His final lap was the best of his entire weekend so far, but it’s even more impressive when you compare it to his previous Q3 attempt, which had left him in P4 behind three drivers within a tenth.
Asked where he had managed to improve between the two runs, the Dutchman gladly expanded.
“Everywhere except the last sector. So, every single corner, a little bit. My first lap, I don’t know, it just felt really different to Q2. Just more oversteer, more understeer in places, and that then made the lap not amazing. But I never thought that I could find whatever it was, almost four tenths, I think. So yeah, it worked, so I’m happy with that.”
All around improvements
After a challenging Friday his performance was even more impressive, as he hadn’t looked much at ease with his car prior to that final lap. Such situation has become rather commonplace for the Red Bull driver, who then usually finds a way around his issues for actual race time.
“In some places, quite different. Yesterday, I was just understeering a lot but at the same time also having oversteer in places. It was very difficult to balance. I think today, we definitely improved the understeer and that just allowed me to push a bit more because understeer is slow, especially in F1. So, we just needed to try and minimise that,” he explained.
What about tomorrow?
Ultimately, Verstappen feels ready to tackle the F1 British GP, while reckoning the strength of McLaren’s pace as well as the tyre management issues which have affected his season so far. He definitely hopes for a better outcome compared to his Austrian DNF, but nevertheless he tried to maintain realistic expectations.
“Yeah, let’s see. We’ll just go in there and try to do the best we can. Normally in the race runs, we struggle a bit more on tyre life. I don’t know how that will be tomorrow. We have to wait and see a little bit also how the weather will be in general, if there is some rain or not.
“The straight-line speed is nice to have but you still need to manage the tyres around here. It’s very tough with all these high-speed corners. But I’m just looking forward to it. I’m not really in a battle, so I’ll just try to have fun and try to get the best possible result.”
Verstappen will try to achieve his third win at Silverstone tomorrow to keep his F1 title hopes alive.
