Max Verstappen wins for Chinese Grand Prix Sprint

The start of the Sprint was a bit tricky for me because the other drivers on the grid had new tyres, so for the first lap they had a bit more grip than I did. My battery was also completely empty, so I had to do a few changes on the wheel to try and get it back up, but once that was all sorted out the pace was good, I was able to look after my tyres well. Ahead of qualifying we changed the fittings on the car and they worked out really well, so I’m very pleased with that. It looks promising for the race, we were strong in the Sprint, but of course there is a lot of information that the other teams can analyse now, so I don’t expect it to be completely straightforward. For the race tomorrow I think that the wind direction could have quite a bit of influence on the balance of the car, but if we do a similar performance to today then I will be very happy. Overall, it was a very good Saturday, I couldn’t have really wished for more. We celebrated the Team’s 100th pole today with Checo at the front of the grid with me in P2. Naturally starting from pole will help and although it isn’t always a guarantee, it does make life a bit easier. The support in Shanghai has been great, there are a lot of fans in the grandstand and it has been a while since we have raced here, so I’m very happy to be back and looking forward to tomorrow.

I was happy with the Sprint result in the end this morning, unfortunately it took me a lot of laps to get by the Spaniards and once I got by, it was just too late to get Lewis. Going into qualifying we did a lot of set up changes and I couldn’t get a good read of the car throughout. It was quite a messy qualifying session, we had a bad Q1 with some traffic. My first proper run was my second in Q2 and Q3 didn’t feel perfect either, but I think we managed to learn throughout qualifying and get into a better rhythm. In the end, it was a good one for the Team, I am very happy to have locked out the front row on the day we got our 100th pole. We have a lot better understanding of the car at the moment and that is continuing to pay off. Hopefully we can put on a good show for the Chinese fans who haven’t had Formula One here for a lot of years. 

So far, it’s been a more positive weekend for us and my best one of the year. We changed the chassis this weekend and I feel the car better and have more confidence in it, so that’s encouraging, but it’s just one track. I’ve always enjoyed Shanghai and I also have a pretty good past here, so I think we need to continue proving our performance in the course of the next few races. We had fun this morning, some positives to take, and some learning for tomorrow’s race. Mid-race in the DRS train was a bit tricky, but then once I cleared Valtteri (Bottas), I was able to catch Kevin (Magnussen) quite quickly. We had a good battle in the last few laps, unfortunately, not for points but we knew it would have been hard to get points in the sprint. Personally, I had a better feeling today, and the sprint was definitely a more attacking race compared to the previous ones. Given track conditions changed quite a lot from yesterday, there were different circumstances; the rain made the track more slippery and the wind changed quite a lot, hence there were quite a few challenges before quali. I was happy with my lap in quali and feel there wasn’t much more in it. There were a couple of our direct rivals in Q3 and they found a bit more pace, but I do feel we have a bit more pace than some cars around us. Even if at the same time, I think some others are challenging us from behind. I’m excited to go racing again tomorrow; the sprint this morning has been encouraging, so I hope we can show a bit more in the long run. It’s probably a one-stop race, but it’s quite a unique front-limited circuit, so potentially even two. I think P12 is a decent place to start and offers the opportunity to try catching the ones in front and get some points.

It’s been tough. This morning during the sprint, I tried to find my way, work the car, and learn a bit more, but I was still struggling. We looked into the data and felt like we made a step forward for qualifying. It’s mixed feelings. In sprint qualifying, I felt I wasn’t able to put it together from my side, but in today’s qualifying, I was pretty happy with my lap. I’ve been struggling with rear grip all weekend and looking at the steering trace compared to other cars, I’m fighting my car a lot but I’ve been working hard together with the engineers to improve it and find a solution, and they helped me a lot. Coming into qualifying, we felt good and confident we found an answer for our package. The lap itself I’m fairly happy with but the time doesn’t reflect the feeling, so it feels like we’re just stuck. Ending up P19 again is frustrating and a shame, but we’ll analyse, try to understand, and find the solution. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we have to change something to find more pace and hopefully, we can be close to the points.