Max Verstappen learned from past Saudi nightmare: 'Nothing weird can happen'
04/19/2025 04:35 PM
Max Verstappen has revealed to learning from one of the rare black spots of his F1 career after clinching another sensational pole position. Around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit where McLaren threatened to dominate after setting a staggering pace in final practice, the four-time F1 champion delivered his latest masterclass over one lap. On this occasion, Verstappen hauled his Red Bull to a hundredth of a second quicker than McLaren's Oscar Piastri to land top spot on the grid after the Australian's team-mate, Lando Norris, had crashed in the early part of Q3. As the lap unfolded and Verstappen hurled the RB21 around the fastest street circuit in the world, memories of 2021 emerged when Verstappen was delivering a lap of the Gods, only to crash in the final corner. Four years may have elapsed, but Verstappen underlined why he is the greatest driver of this generation. "There were a few reasons behind it in '21 why, in hindsight, I went off," said Verstappen on Sky Sports F1 . "We don't need to speak about it now, but you learn from it. "So when I was on my final lap, I knew that once I came out of turn 22, I said,' Okay, that's fine. Nothing weird can happen in the last corner'. "And then I just found a little bit more in the last corner again. That was the story of my qualifying in Q1, Q2, Q3, every time, just a little bit better. "And the team also gave me nice little tips to try for some corners, to optimise the balance a little bit more, and it all worked out well." Verstappen turned off data Verstappen has revealed that he had turned away after witnessing what unfolded in final practice when McLaren duo Norris and Piastri were head and shoulders clear of their rivals. The Dutchman was a staggering 0.845s adrift of Norris at the end of the session, and by his own admission, Verstappen felt that at that stage any hope of challenging McLaren was out of reach. "Honestly, after FP3, I quickly looked at the data and the difference, and I just turned it off," said Verstappen. "I was like, 'Well, that's going to be very hard to do. "But somehow, when it just cools off again, it just seems to give most of the other teams more performance, which clearly shows that when the tyres are running hot and overheating, McLaren is on another level." As to where he ranked the 65th pole position of his career, though, Verstappen could not gauge other than declaring it to be "high up there", particularly with the difficulty in "finding that sweet spot in the car". "I'm happy with it," he said. "I just find it difficult to say if it's a top five or, you know, it's always very tough. But it was good. It was nice."
