Verstappen romped house to a 13-second win over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai’s 19-lap dash, earlier than occurring to say a dominant pole for Sunday’s correct grand prix as nicely.
An extended-time opponent of the dash format, Verstappen mentioned he was extra happy along with his pole place than along with his dash win, though he did concede its rejigged format with two separate parc ferme durations is an enormous enchancment.
“It is a extra logical and nicer format,” Verstappen mentioned. “I used to be nonetheless happier with pole than with the dash race, in fact.
Elaborating on his opinion to Sky Sports activities F1, Verstappen added: “I did assume it is nicer than what we had, simply that you simply additionally capable of make some modifications to the automotive after the dash.
“The one factor which was just a little bit bizarre was that you simply did a race and then you definately return into qualifying [mode].
“Perhaps we must always do qualifying after which the race. I do not know however these are simply issues to fine-tune perhaps. However total, undoubtedly higher than what we used to have.”
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing RB20
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Verstappen mentioned he and his race engineer opted to vary the Purple Bull RB20’s set-up forward of qualifying and Sunday’s race regardless of his dominant dash win.
“After the dash race, it gave us just a few extra concepts for the automotive and I believe the automotive labored even higher in qualifying now,” he defined.
“It undoubtedly provides you extra of an concept with the degradation, what to have a look at, what to work on.
“The wind path goes to vary once more tomorrow, so the stability of the automotive in some corners can be a bit completely different once more. However I believe if the automotive is simply even half pretty much as good as what it was within the dash, I believe we’ll be alright.”
Verstappen established yet one more landmark for Purple Bull by clinching the staff’s a centesimal pole place in F1, with the Dutchman accountable for 37 of these.
“Earlier than I jumped within the automotive, Christian [Horner] advised me if I get pole right this moment, it could be quantity 100 for the staff,” he mentioned.
“That is an unimaginable achievement for the entire staff. In fact, additionally an enormous contribution from Seb [Vettel] again within the day. However yeah, improbable.”
Further reporting by Erwin Jaeggi