On Saturday, Max Verstappen qualified second for the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. The Dutchman was on the hunt for pole position, but had to deal with a failing DRS system on his last run that forced him to abort his lap.
Championship leader Charles Leclerc took first position. Leclerc’s teammate at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, finished in third place. George Russell, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top six.
Spanish Grand Prix qualifying results 2022
Verstappen was disappointed by the small defect that probably cost him the first starting position in the race on Sunday. “I couldn’t do my last run. The DRS did not open. I clicked the button, but it didn’t open. After turn nine the team asked me to check it again and it did open. Very strange. It’s a shame, but being here on the front row of the grid after the weekend we’ve had so far is a good achievement. But of course I would have liked to have gone for that last run.”
Looking ahead to the race, Max says: “Of course anything can happen. But you can see that Ferrari has had quite a bit of speed all weekend. So in terms of speed, I think they are a little better off. But we’re going to try it tomorrow anyway. But overall this was a bit more difficult weekend for us.”
According to Max, tomorrow it will mainly be about tire management: “Of course most of it revolves around that. Of course you also just have to have the speed in the car. Hopefully I’m a little better on the tires than Ferrari. But when I look at their run in the third free practice, it looks strong there too. So wait and see. Tomorrow it will of course be very hot again. It’s going to be quite difficult to overtake at this track, but we’ll see. Hopefully our car is a bit kinder to the tires again. But that’s hard to say at the moment.”
text : Yvonne Huijs