Max Verstappen emerged to an impressive P2 in the F1 Sprint Qualifying at the Belgian GP. The Dutchman’s strong lap separated the two McLarens and he will line up between the teammates for tomorrow’s sprint race.
Verstappen satisfied with maximised result
Verstappen has repeatedly shown that one can never count him out for the top positions as he knows how to deliver when it matters. The Red Bull driver secured his spot as second on the grid with a beautiful 1:40.987 around Spa-Francorchamps. While he was four tenths off Oscar Piastri’s pole position, the Dutchman still finished over a tenth ahead of Lando Norris.
When speaking in the TV pen post-sprint qualifying, Verstappen expressed that while the gap to McLaren remains big, the team’s focus stays on themselves and how they can improve.
“Being P2 between them is already a good result for us. I do think we maximised that. I enjoyed it out there. The lap itself was fine, it was good. So, yeah, of course the gap is very big, but it’s been big already from FP1. So it’s not a big surprise. We just have to focus on ourselves and work on the balance of the car and try to go faster.”
Verstappen continued on to be asked if there is a bonus to taking the downforce out and get an advantage on the straight line. The four-time World Champion expressed that the speed on the straight would not make a huge difference.
“Yeah, but when you’re almost five tenths off, I don’t think going faster or slower on the straight is going to matter a lot. We just have to do our own race and see what we can do.”
Red Bull upgrades not enough to close the gap to McLaren up front
Ahead of the Belgian GP weekend, Red Bull brought tweaks to previous significant upgrades. The team revised their Barcelona front wing and made changes with the goal of raising the downforce level.
When asked if the upgrades were positive, Verstappen responded:
“I guess so, yeah. It’s always difficult in a sprint weekend to say exactly what they do, of course. But then, when you look at the gap, that’s not what we want, right? We keep improving, keep trying to find more performance, but other teams do the same thing. So that’s just how it goes.”
Despite qualifying P2 for the Sprint Race, the four-time World Champion remains insistent that more work needs to be done in order to challenge the McLarens. Thus far in the 2025 season, McLaren has dominated as their car is in a different league compared to the other teams particularly in race trim.
Tsunoda disappointed with gap to Verstappen
His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, had an earlier exit as he was out in SQ2. The back of the field were incredibly tight as Tsunoda found himself in P12, six hundreths away from Q3.
The Japanese driver candidly explained his disappointment of finding himself six tenths behind Verstappen in SQ2.
“To be honest, still probably struggling to drive. I missed out six tenths [ to Verstappen], it’s obviously very tight. It’s just like usual, it’s just a very tight session, and each detail counts. I try my best, I think obviously every driver have it when you look back there’s some bits and bobs that we can improve as usual. At least I know there are some things I can improve, but at the same time, it’s always missing out this close in Q3, it’s frustrating.”
He continued on to express that while he does not have all the new parts Verstappen has, the Red Bull driver is unaware of when these will be coming.
“I’ll do my best until then. I don’t know when I’m going to get them, but it’s getting there. I think how we work in the engineering group and we started to consistently extracting the performance from the package we have, in terms of setup and everything, I can do a bit better, but it’s just after everything, like these days, that tight session, everything has to be together.”
With the unpredictability of Spa, the Red Bull driver could possibly fight his way to the points for Saturday’s sprint race. Additionally, Tsunoda has another opportunity to close the gap to Verstappen in tomorrow’s qualifying for the grand prix.
