Max Verstappen teased he will make it three-wide “for the pictures” on the opening lap of the F1 Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen will start Sunday’s race from third on the grid, behind McLaren duo 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris.

The Dutchman set an identical lap to Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell, but as he set his lap time first, he will꧋ start ahead on the grid for the race.

Wh♚ile McLaren have a clear performance advantage, Verstappen is still in title contention.

Ve🦹rstappen has won two of the ꦏopening eight races - the same as Norris.

He’s j🔯ust 25 points behind Piastri with a large portion of the season to go.

With a long run down 💯to Turn 1 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, theඣre could be fireworks on the first lap.

When asked how he would 🍸approach the first cor🃏ner, Verstappen joked that it would be his “time to shine.”

Speaking in the FIA press conference, Verstappen said: “I think it’s time to shine in Turn 1, yeah. Make it th♋ree-wide for the pictures. Why not? I don’t know. Honestly𝓰, I think looking at pace it will be tough.

“As Oscar said, it’s not all about the start, Turn 1. You need ꦜto be good on tyres. It’s a long ♌race - a lot can happen. I will just try to maximise what I got.”

Red Bull “lacking a bit too much”

Ultimately, the gap beജtween Piastri and Verstappen was just over three-tenths.

The four-ಞtime world champion conceded he didn’t have the pace in 🍒the RB21.

“It was fine.ꦚ I 🎉think it was consistently the same delta behind,” he explained.

“So Q1, Q🎃2 and Q3. Just my first run in Q3 was a bit more difficult as we had a different outlap approach and it didn’t work. Clearly, lacking a bit too much. Sector one was quite tough. Turn 1 was never really good, even though I tried different approaches, and c🤡ouldn’t find the grip there. It was fine. The car was in a decent window. Unfortunately, not fast enough. I had fun out there. Out here, qualifying flat-out, fast corners. It’s really enjoyable.”

When asked whether he couꩲld compete with the McLarens, he replied: “It’s going to be tough. My long run wasn’t bad. I think if we look at the difference today it will be tough to put up a really, really good fight. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try. We will see tomorrow.”