Verstappen: Qualifying flattered us and we “need more”

Purple Bull accelerated their improvement programme to carry their newest improve bundle three weeks sooner than deliberate in response to the risk posed by McLaren.

However after being crushed by each MCL38s, at the moment Max Verstappen admitted the crew must do extra to shut the hole.

“For certain they work, however we’re nonetheless not first, proper?” was Verstappen’s verdict on the crew’s newest improve for its RB20.

“So we want extra. It’s so simple as that.”

Verstappen lapped 1.3 seconds faster than he managed on the identical monitor a yr in the past, which is a larger enchancment than most groups managed. Nevertheless McLaren have discovered extra, and Verstappen mentioned he was at his restrict making an attempt to wring probably the most from his automotive.

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“Trying again at my qualifying, I used to be very proud of the laps, however balance-wise all the things is absolutely on the sting,” he mentioned within the FIA press convention after qualifying. “I’m pushing as exhausting as I can.

“Then, in fact, you will have little moments right here and there. I really feel like I most likely pushed tougher than I did final yr, but it surely’s simply not coming anymore to have these nice lap instances.

“I assume it simply signifies that we’re a bit slower. So now we have work to do. Easy as that.”

He ended qualifying lower than five-hundredths of a second slower than each McLaren drivers, who claimed the entrance row of the grid. Nevertheless Verstappen identified he had the good thing about having the ability to full each his flying laps on new mushy tyres in Q3, which the McLaren drivers had been unable to do due to Yuki Tsunoda’s crash, and due to this fact the true hole between them is probably going even bigger.

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“The hole appears to be like small however I additionally bought two laps in with two units of tyres the place Lando, in fact, solely had one,” he instructed the official F1 channel. “So I don’t assume it’s a real looking hole additionally, if he would have had one other set of tyres.”

Lando Norris, McLaren, Hungaroring, 2024 — McLaren are additional forward than they give the impression of being, says Verstappen

Purple Bull’s newest improve is meant to swimsuit high-downforce circuits just like the Hungaroring. Nevertheless it was unable to beat the McLaren, which has been constantly aggressive throughout a spread of circuits.

Verstappen mentioned it is going to be tough for Purple Bull to make important beneficial properties with its automotive over the second half of the yr. “We’re pushing as exhausting as we are able to, however clearly in the intervening time it’s nonetheless not how we would like it to be,” he mentioned.

“We’ll proceed to take action, we’ll attempt to discover extra efficiency. However I’m additionally properly conscious that that’s not very simple to seek out all of a sudden all through the season, with issues already simply deliberate, and simply the best way the automotive is.

“We’ll see. There are various races, there are lots of issues that may occur in qualifying with circumstances, stuff like that. So we simply want to remain targeted and do the perfect we are able to each single time and optimise our performances.”

The crew which locked out the entrance row of the grid at Silverstone two weeks in the past, Mercedes, weren’t within the hunt on the Hungaroring. It might have been in a stronger place had George Russell not slipped up in Q1 and dropped out, although it stays to be seen whether or not they would have crushed Ferrari. Neither was on the extent of the highest two groups, nonetheless.

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There was some encouragement for Aston Martin which introduced a major improve bundle to Hungary and had been the fifth-quickest crew in qualifying. Sauber additionally seem to have benefited from their improve, whereas Alpine’s poor displaying was exacerbated by their Q1 blunder which noticed each drivers drop out as they didn’t set instances because the monitor dried.

Sector instances and supreme laps

P.
#
Driver
S1
S2
S3
Final lap (deficit)

1
4
Lando Norris
27.606 (8)
26.382 (1)
21.239 (2)
1’15.227

2
81
Oscar Piastri
27.553 (4)
26.472 (2)
21.224 (1)
1’15.249

3
1
Max Verstappen
27.461 (1)
26.524 (3)
21.288 (3)
1’15.273

4
55
Carlos Sainz Jnr
27.465 (2)
26.832 (6)
21.36 (4)
1’15.657 (+0.039)

5
44
Lewis Hamilton
27.572 (5)
26.754 (5)
21.431 (7)
1’15.757 (+0.097)

6
16
Charles Leclerc
27.644 (10)
26.742 (4)
21.446 (8)
1’15.832 (+0.059)

7
14
Fernando Alonso
27.486 (3)
26.933 (8)
21.476 (9)
1’15.895 (+0.148)

8
22
Yuki Tsunoda
27.613 (9)
26.95 (9)
21.387 (5)
1’15.950 (+0.171)

9
18
Lance Stroll
27.598 (7)
26.955 (10)
21.4 (6)
1’15.953 (+0.122)

10
3
Daniel Ricciardo
27.714 (13)
26.877 (7)
21.521 (11)
1’16.112 (+0.090)

11
27
Nico Hulkenberg
27.588 (6)
27.092 (13)
21.637 (15)
1’16.317

12
77
Valtteri Bottas
27.708 (12)
27.176 (14)
21.5 (10)
1’16.384

13
23
Alexander Albon
27.791 (14)
27.077 (12)
21.561 (12)
1’16.429

14
2
Logan Sargeant
27.857 (15)
27.055 (11)
21.631 (14)
1’16.543

15
20
Kevin Magnussen
27.663 (11)
27.292 (15)
21.593 (13)
1’16.548

16
63
George Russell
28.183 (16)
27.659 (18)
21.681 (16)
1’17.523 (+0.445)

17
11
Sergio Perez
28.236 (17)
27.665 (19)
21.865 (18)
1’17.766 (+0.120)

18
24
Zhou Guanyu
28.456 (18)
27.538 (17)
21.936 (19)
1’17.930 (+0.107)

19
31
Esteban Ocon
28.484 (19)
27.536 (16)
22.029 (20)
1’18.049

20
10
Pierre Gasly
28.551 (20)
27.766 (20)
21.849 (17)
1’18.166

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This yr’s pole place time was 1.3 seconds sooner than final yr, however nonetheless the perfect a part of two seconds slower than the all-time report for this configuration.