Max Verstappen’s best efforts in qualifying for the 2025 F1 Spanish GP could only reward him with a third place grid slot, behind the two McLaren drivers – and the Dutchman put that down to Red Bull simply “lacking” a bit of speed compared to the Papaya cars.
Red Bull “clearly lacking too much” speed
The reigning world champion was over three tenths behind Oscar Piastri’s eventual pole lap at the end of qualifying, and despite saying he had “fun” with his RB21 in a decent working window, the raw speed just wasn’t there to really challenge for pole:
“It was fine. I think it was consistently the same delta behind [the McLarens] – in Q1, Q2 and Q3,” he said. “Just my first one in Q3 was a bit more difficult because we tried a different out-lap approach and that didn’t work.
“But [we’re] clearly just lacking a bit too much – sector 1 was quite tough, turn one was never really good, even though I tried different approaches, but just didn’t seem to find the grip there.
“The rest… It was fine. The car was in a decent window.
“Unfortunately, not fast enough, but I had fun out there. The car, around here, qualifying flat out, fast corners, it is really enjoyable.”
“Not all about the start” on Sunday
Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen jokingly said that he would launch an attack on the McLarens and make it three-wide into turn one “for the pictures”, but on a serious note, the Dutchman reiterated that the race is not won or lost in the first corner, a sentiment also shared by F1 Spanish GP pole-sitter Piastri:
“I think it’s time to shine in Turn 1, yeah? Make it three-wide for the pictures. Why not?” he joked. “I don’t know. Honestly, I think looking at pace, it will be tough.
“It’s not all about the start and Turn 1. You need to be good on tyres. It’s a long race. A lot can happen. So, I’ll just try to maximise what I got.”
Hoping to “at least put the pressure on” despite lack of pace
With the two McLarens in formation ahead of him, Verstappen doesn’t expect that the race pace in his RB21 will be enough to overcome such a deficit, and said he’s looking to at least be able to “put some pressure” as he looks for his fourth consecutive F1 win at the Spanish GP:
“It’s going to be tough, I think,” Verstappen said about his chances of winning on Sunday. “My long run wasn’t bad, but if you look at the difference today, it will be tough to put up a really, really good fight.
“But that doesn’t mean that we’re not going try. So, we’ll see tomorrow.
“I don’t think it feels like Imola in terms of how competitive we are,” he told Sky. “But we’ll see. We have to maximise the points that we can get, and try to at least put the pressure on.
“But I’m not sure how much we can do.”
