Qualifying
F1 2023
Round 8

Max Verstappen took pole position for Spain Grand Prix

es Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Round 8 of the season, Spain Grand Prix is taking place at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Max Verstappen of Oracle Red Bull Racing, supported by Honda as a Team Partner, took pole position, and Sergio Perez was P11.

Max Verstappen took pole position for Spain Grand Prix

Scuderia AlphaTauri's Nyck De Vries will start tomorrow's race from 14th and Yuki Tsunoda from 15th.


Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen 1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
The weekend has been enjoyable so far. The car has been really performing well but of course we always try to find improvements here and there. Qualifying started off tricky, you needed to be on the track at the right time, not making any mistakes. Going into Q3 I knew there was good potential left in the car so I could finally push it to the limit. The first run was really quick, then of course we went out again for the second run, that would have been even better, but I was told to abort the lap to save the tyres. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we’ll need to watch out for the tyre wear but going into that last corner brings a smile to my face because that’s where an F1 car really comes to life.

Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez 11
Oracle Red Bull Racing
It hasn’t been a straightforward weekend, the conditions were quite tricky and I wasn’t that comfortable in qualifying. I’ve been trying to modify my driving style quite a bit this weekend and as soon as we had some variable conditions it put us on the back foot and I just couldn’t get the full potential out of the car. Going into turn 5, the track was a little bit damp and I just lost the rear and went into the gravel, so we ended up losing a bit of time which was very costly for us. That incident meant that the tyres were too hot on my final lap and it was hard to come back from. However, I think anything is possible tomorrow and we will try everything we can to recover the position and progress through the field. I am looking forward to the race and I think we should be able to get some good points and hopefully get on the podium.

Nyck De Vries
Nyck De Vries 21
Scuderia AlphaTauri
It’s been a positive weekend, but I am disappointed with the outcome of qualifying. I had two spins at the exit of Turn 11 so I wasted two sets of the soft compound and had no new tyres left for Q2. There was a wet patch that I did not see but clearly felt, so my confidence got the best of me in the end. It's a shame because we had good pace, so I hope we can carry that into the race tomorrow. It will be a long race and a lot of focus on tyre degradation, with rain possibly creating even more opportunities, so let’s see.

Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda 22
Scuderia AlphaTauri
The team did a good job and my lap was good, but I made a mistake just going outside of the track and my time was deleted. I'm very frustrated with myself. I knew I had to give it everything to make it to Q3, so I don’t have any regrets, but at the same time, it was just so close. The conditions were tricky going from damp to dry, which made things interesting. My expectations for tomorrow aren’t too high, but anything can happen, and I'll be prepared for every scenario in order to maximise our chance for points.


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