Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is “really happy” to be back at a competitive level for the 2024 US Grand Prix.
Having failed to win any of the last eight races since his Austrian Sprint victory in late June, Verstappen dominated the US Sprint to extend his title lead slightly to 54 points after Lando Norris could only finish third.
Norris however extracted revenge in Qualifying to take pole for the Grand Prix, albeit aided by a slice of luck after George Russell’s crash ended the final Q3 runs prematurely.
Verstappen though felt he was “unfortunate” to not complete his final lap in Qualifying, but admitted that he lost pole through an error on his first flying lap in Q3.
“During my first lap I made a mistake at turn 19 and on my second lap, we were purple in the first sector but unfortunately there was a yellow flag. This happens sometimes in racing and you can’t control these things.”
The three-time reigning champion though is pleased with how his RB20 is back to a competitive level, due to two upgrades having been brought to this event after a four-week break.
“I was still really happy with our performance and we were really there to fight for pole which was very positive! We brought upgrades to the car this week which has made it faster and better to drive so hopefully this all works for tomorrow.
“We have been strong in the weekend so far and it was great to win the Sprint race. We learnt a lot from this and if we can replicate what we did in the Sprint I will be very confident for tomorrow.
The 27 year-old though is wary of how close McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are, whilst he can’t afford to have a bad race and hand Norris a chance to cut his deficit back down.
“There are small gaps between teams so I expect that it will be very competitive and I need a good result tomorrow.
“The most important thing is that we are competitive again and the car is feeling better and hopefully we will be able to fight for the win tomorrow.”
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