Rain played havoc on the field during Q1 of qualifying. And the weather doesn’t care if you’re the reigning world champion. Max Verstappen learned that the hard way when his car snapped around on him, sending him into the gravel trap. He called the incident “super unlucky,” as the rain caught him instead of the cars in front of him during a push lap.
“I knew in Q1 we needed that slick lap in because you never know if it’s going to rain more and the session is over,” Verstappen said. “Naturally, I tried to keep the speed up. I did slow down, knowing it was raining on my visor, but it still snapped on me, and then I had to keep it out of the wall going off-line.
With all that floor damage, Verstappen never was a threat for pole as qualifying continued on. He’ll start P4 alongside Lando Norris.
“But then I had to take the gravel, which ripped the floor apart, (and I) missed quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job trying to recover some of the bits and tried optimize the balance front to rear. But yeah, that basically ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3 with the damage that we had. And to be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.”