Max Verstappen claims that George Russell “got excited” during the qualifying incident, which resulted in a one-place grid penalty for the Red Bull driver and caused him to lose pole.
Russell ran upon a slow-moving Verstappen during their preparation laps for their last runs in Q3.
The Mercedes driver was forced to run wide and hence was unable to improve his time.
However the stewards investigated the incident and deemed that Verstappen was “driving unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.”
“There were two cars in front of me also making a gap, so I had to make a gap,” said the Dutchman before the penalty was confirmed.
“And I knew that everyone was on a slow lap, not on a push lap. And then I think George got excited. He wanted to pass and get around. That’s fine. I mean, everyone, of course, tries to get their position to have the best possible start to the lap.”
Verstappen was surprised to find himself in contention for pole position after his team made big set-up alterations during the race.
“It couldn’t have been worse,” he said. “So we just looked at it. It’s not all super clear, but we’re like, well, we have to go and try this direction. We put it on the car and it worked. And of course a lot of people back at the factory analysing a lot of stuff already throughout the whole weekend.
“But at the end of the day you have to make the decisions also on track if you want to do it or not. Simulator is running in the background as well. And yeah, a miracle happened!”
Verstappen said consistency was the key to the improvement.
“Just felt a bit more hooked up on entry, mid-corner,” he said. “Like everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. So I felt it straight away from lap one that it all just felt a bit more consistent. And that’s exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive.
“I think from the first lap in Q1, it felt a lot more promising, but then to get the tyres in the right window is very tough. So then it went away a little bit, then it came back again. And then, yeah, luckily for Q3, I think it was there. And yeah, very happy with how we turned it around.”
He added: “I felt confident in the car, so I was pushing it,” he said. “And honestly, the whole lap was hundredths here, then two hundredths and then the last corner a little bit. It was not a lot compared to the previous lap, but it was just everywhere a little bit better.
“Of course, naturally there is a little bit less feel in the car because I only did one run. That helps. So yeah, it was all pretty close, but it felt just a lot more connected for me.
“And that was definitely necessary. And then you can attack the corners a bit more. And that gave us pole position.”
Regarding prospects for the race he said: “It’s still a bit of a question mark. I did feel that yesterday we were not too far off in qualifying, and then I felt like we were quite far off in the Sprint.
“So this is great, to be on pole, but I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be enough to really be the outright fastest, but we’ll find out tomorrow.”
