Verstappen ready for a fight after surprise pole: 'I'm going to give it everything I have'
04/19/2025 04:27 PM
Max Verstappen admits the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be tougher to win from pole position than his recent triumph in Japan but insists that he's going to give it everything to hold off the McLarens behind him.
In Suzuka two weeks ago, Verstappen produced an excellent qualifying lap to secure pole position and duly won his first race of the season, in a race that saw little in the way of overtaking. The defending champion repeated the trick in a thrilling qualifying session in Jeddah, but with higher temperatures and more overtaking opportunities, he believes he's in for a tough fight.
"Up until now not very confident , to be honest," Verstappen said. "I mean, my long runs weren’t particularly great compared to Oscar or Lando . I’m going to give it everything I have, for sure.
"Does it mean that I have enough? I don’t know but the car definitely took a bit of a step forward, I think, compared to what we were testing yesterday, so I hope that that will help our tire life out as well. It's difficult to say if that gives an opportunity to fight, but like I said I’m going to give it a go."
One of the aspects that Verstappen believes helped him edge out Oscar Piastri by 0.01s was the run plan that Red Bull opted for, with the Dutchman completing two runs after the red flag caused by Lando Norris' crash in Q3.
" good enough, clearly. I felt immediately more confident when I had it into qualifying,” he said. “We made some minor changes to the car but they were clearly big enough to feel, and I think that’s a bit the story of our car — it can be like really hit and miss. When we get it right it’s competitive of course but when we don’t get it right it’s a lot more difficult.
"But all of qualifying went well. Around here it’s I think always important to have quite a bit of rhythm, so naturally you do quite a lot of laps. The tires luckily hold on to do that.
"Then the red flag in Q3 is not ideal but of course everyone has to deal with that. So we opted for that two-lap strategy and I’m happy that we did that. It just kept me on top of things and it felt good.
"With the crash, I think the only thing that it then meant was that of course you had to change your approach and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. At the end of the day GP said, let’s fuel it for two laps, so you do the first lap on the used out-lap tire and then you pit and you go onto the new.
"Of course, naturally you carry a bit more fuel so you’re a bit slower in the first timed lap, and I think it was the right call. At the end that was definitely the right thing to do for me, at least in terms of the feeling I had with the car and building up to the limit."
