Red Bull and Honda appear to have surprised themselves in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen set to start the race from fourth place.
The Dutchman admitted that he ended up far closer to Mercedes and Ferrari than expected but believes that with a slipstream for his final effort he might've snatched top spot on the grid for tomorrow's race.
For this weekend Honda rolled out their Spec-2 engine and by all accounts, it is another step in the right direction for the partnership.
Verstappen's best effort on Saturday in Baku was half a second down on the top time, which is around where they were in China after Q3, but three tenths better than they were in Bahrain and Australia.
Verstappen acknowledged at the end of the day, “We were positively surprised that we were so competitive in qualifying and the second row of the grid is not bad. Everything was going quite smoothly, but in Q3 we were running a different strategy as I only had one set of tyres so I was on my own."
"Around this track, it is very painful to be on your own and you, of course, lose lap time to others who have a tow. Even compared to my own lap in Q2 I was losing around two and a half tenths on the main straight."
"You can also gain a tenth or two on the other straights having a car six or seven seconds ahead as you get sucked in and these cars have so much drag. I pushed everything I could out of my final lap and it was pretty good.'
"I think we could have fought for pole if we were in that train of cars [slipstream], but at least we know the car is working well. It’s always a crazy one here and for sure the race won’t be won at Turn 1."
"It’s all pretty close and from fourth, we can still fight for the race," added the Red Bull driver.
https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/04/27/baku-qualifying/
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