Max Verstappen is anticipating a “tough” race from P5 on the grid on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix, with the Dutchman admitting that the “entire weekend has been robust” up to now on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Regardless of topping the timesheets throughout Friday’s second observe hour, Verstappen raised issues about Red Bull’s tempo within the lengthy runs, the reigning World Champion suggesting that the whole lot aside from the squad’s brief run efficiency was “pretty bad”.
The automotive once more regarded tough to deal with at instances throughout Saturday and Verstappen in the end claimed fifth place in Qualifying, along with his lap of 1m 16.070s almost half a second off that set by polesitter Lando Norris.
“We tried quite a lot of stuff,” Verstappen mirrored after the session. “Even going into Qualifying, I suppose we bought it somewhat bit incorrect in some areas of the monitor. You solely want to have a look at the onboard and also you see sufficient – it’s simply tough.
“All weekend we couldn’t discover the grip within the automotive, in order that’s one thing that we have to perceive as a result of in Qualifying when you’ve got these sorts of points you’re sliding quite a bit, and on a monitor like this you can’t afford that.”
Pushed on whether or not any adjustments had been made to his RB21 in a single day following Friday’s points, the 28-year-old answered: “I imply, large enough to usually see a distinction, which we have now seen in the previous few weekends – in case you make a change it exhibits one thing, however this entire weekend has been robust.”
Given the struggles with race tempo that he flagged earlier within the weekend, Verstappen is anticipating Sunday’s Grand Prix to be a difficult one as he prepares to line up behind the McLaren of Norris, the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton plus Mercedes’ George Russell.
“It’s going to be tough,” he defined. “It’s going to be heat, it’s going to be robust on tyres. You want a great stability – I don’t suppose we have now that.
“However we’ll see what we will do, I’m probably not anticipating to be in a battle forward of me – they’re miles quicker. It’s extra with the folks round me, I suppose.”
