"Phenomenal" Verstappen "dragged every ounce" from the Red Bull to take pole - Horner
"Phenomenal" Verstappen "dragged every ounce" from the Red Bull to take pole - Horner
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has heaped praise on the "phenomenal" performance of Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi qualifying after he secured his first pole in more than a year.
Crossing the line after both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had lowered the pole target, Verstappen pipped the two Mercedes drivers by just 0.025 seconds - a margin one-thousandth smaller than the gap between Bottas and George Russell last weekend.
Verstappen had begun the weekend seemingly resigned to being third fastest at best, to a point where he took the third-place chair with him from the Thursday press session.
"So many times this year we've sat in that third-place seat," said Horner. "Max actually took it home with him at the press conference on Thursday but he's just strung together a brilliant lap at the end there.
"It's so tight, less than a tenth between the top three cars. He was gutted to miss out last week and to put that lap together to get that pole was a phenomenal performance.
"You know you can bank on him and you know he's going to give it everything. You know that he can always surprise you and he's done that today going into that qualifying.
"I thought P3 looks comfortable but you can see from the reaction what it means to the team and the team has worked their nuts off this year. We've had nine of the 10 fastest pit stops of the season and they've been remarkable."
Red Bull has steadily closed the gap to Mercedes across the year and with a large amount of carryover between the 2020 and 2021 cars, Horner said scoring pole on the final weekend of the year is an "important" result.
Horner added: "I think for the team that have just worked so hard to keep improving this car, I think for Honda as well, and for Max who has just been mighty this year and he has dragged every ounce of performance out of the car - to get this pole at the last race is important.
Sunday will provide a different challenge for Red Bull if they are to add to their one race victory this year, which came when Verstappen won the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in the fourth race of the year.
Horner expalined: "It's important to convert it tomorrow into a great result so I just think for everybody in the whole team they have just worked so hard under such difficult conditions this year."
Related
Change your timezone:
Latest News
Hamilton 'emotional burden' heading into 2024 season revealed
- 35 minutes ago
Marko DIRECTLY addresses Verstappen quit rumours
- 1 hour ago
Vettel CONFIRMS F1 comeback and reveals what's holding it up
- 2 hours ago
- 1
Hamilton flooded with applications as F1 celebrity pal founds new team
- 2 hours ago
F1 News Today: Hamilton puts himself on the market with F1 set for TAKEOVER worth 'billions'
- 2 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE: Meeting F1's Max Verstappen - Red Bull star’s ‘cool’ canteen encounter
- 3 hours ago
F1 Race Calendar
-
GP BAHRAIN
29 Feb - 2 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP SAUDI ARABIA
7 - 9 Mar
Max Verstappen
-
GP AUSTRALIA
22 - 24 Mar
Carlos Sainz
- GP JAPAN 5 - 7 Apr
- GP CHINA 19 - 21 Apr
- GP USA 3 - 6 May
- GP ITALY 17 - 19 May
- GP MONACO 24 - 26 May
Related news
Marko DIRECTLY addresses Verstappen quit rumours
Top manufacturer takes HUGE step towards F1 return
Mercedes driver reveals unique BENEFIT to being Verstappen’s team-mate
F1 pundit suggests Verstappen DNF linked with Horner Red Bull chaos
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860