Max Verstappen says the bumps at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix are hurting Red Bull after he could only qualify fourth for the Sprint.
Interlagos has been resurfaced since Formula 1 last raced in Brazil and the track surface offered improved grip, but it became evident from the opening laps of FP1 that it has also led to an extremely bumpy ride for the drivers. With Red Bull’s car preferring smoother surfaces, Verstappen says it was clear from the start of Sprint qualifying that he didn’t have the pace to challenge McLaren, and he’s expecting similar over a long run.
“As soon as we went into qualifying it looked like we were definitely off,” Verstappen said. “The car was a bit difficult on the bumps. They did the resurfacing but I think they actually made it worse to drive! It’s extremely bumpy everywhere, so that’s not good for our car. All the bumpy areas, the car is jumping around a lot, and it’s costing me quite a bit of lap time unfortunately.
“For tomorrow, I don’t know. Normally when you’re already quite a bit off over one lap, I don’t think we’re particularly the strongest in the race, so we’ll have to see how that goes tomorrow in the Sprint.
“Of course, I also know there is maybe some weather around that can come — maybe not for the Sprint, but we’ll have a look. And then for the penalty [on Sunday], I have a bit more work to do.”
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Title rival Lando Norris starts on the front row after being edged out by Oscar Piastri on the final lap, and says he’s not paying any attention to how Verstappen is performing.
“I don’t care — I hate these questions so much,” Norris said. “I’m just going to race, I don’t care about where he qualifies. For me I’m just going to focus on my own job. That’s it. It’s the same question every time, but it doesn’t matter, if he’s first or he’s last I’ll do the best I can.”
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez also struggled as he dropped out in the second part of Sprint qualifying, and says he wasn’t able to get the car working well enough as track temperatures dropped compared to practice.
“We had a good Q1 but then into Q2 we were struggling a little bit with the balance,” Perez said. “We had a little bit of understeer with the track coming down and we tried to do it with the brake balance and tools that I had available, and I ended up a little bit too rear limited. And then it was a bit confusing on the program — we thought we might have a chance for a second lap and unfortunately we didn’t.
“It was a good, strong FP1, but I think today we did struggle quite a bit. Looking forward to tomorrow’s qualifying really. We got caught out with the conditions, unfortunately, and that’s really what was the difficult bit.”