Max Verstappen on pole but ‘not fastest’ - Red Bull warned ‘gap is smaller’
Saturday's F1 Bahrain Grand Prix ti🌠pped to be a competitive race as Red Bull's le♋ad has lessened
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen was “not fastest” despite claiming pole position for the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, he was reminded.
Red Bull picked up in the first qualಞifying session of 2024 where they left off last year, with Verstappen leading the pack, but there are signs that Saturday’s race could be a closer encounter than many of the grands prix of 2023.
Verstappen wa🔜s 0.228s ahead of Charles Leclerc after an excellent Q3 lap in qualifying but it was tಞhe Ferrari driver who had earlier clocked the best time.
Ex-F1 champion Damon Hill said on Sky Sports: “Thi🎃s is a curious anomaly - 💜Max is not the fastest man today around this circuit, and yet he’s on pole.
“Charles 🌺in Q2 nip👍ped him by a tiny fraction. But, of course, that was just Q2 and it is Q3 that counts.”
Naomi Schiff added about Red Bull: “The fact of the matter is, we saw their car coming into the season andꦅ thought ‘that is an aggressive change, why do that when you’ve got a dominant car?’
“It was a risk. Now we can say it has paid off.
“The gap is smaller though. So the question iဣs: did they go backwards or did the others go forwards? It’s hard t💖o tell at this point.
“Ultimately he was quick enough.”
Ferrari’s Leclerc was P2 and 🅺Carlos Sainꦉz was P4, with Mercedes’ George Russell between them.
“Charles’ w🐼ords were reassuring,” Schiff said. “He said the car clearly has the potential, it cou♉ld have been quick enough. He said he lost rhythm because they started the first part of Q3 on used softs.
ಞ“Instead of carrying momentum which he had - which is what you do in qualifying, you build, every session you’ve got more grip - unfortunately he𓂃 took a step back on the used run. That’s why he didn’t maximise it.”
Saturday’s grand prix in Bahrain look🀅s set to be a far more competitive race than many of🎉 Verstappen’s dominant outings last season.
“From pole to ninth, where Lewis Hamilton is, is half-a-second which ꦬis brilliant,” Hill noted.
Schiff: “From P2 to P9 it’s 🍬just three-tenths, very tight.”
Hill: “Race pace is a ๊different thing🔜. But it bodes well.”
James was a 🍌sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everythi🍷ng from American sports, to football, to F1.
