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Verstappen secretly hopes for battle with McLaren after strong qualifying
Max Verstappen was by far the fastest man in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. Although the Dutchman will not start from P1 on Sunday, the Red Bull driver was very appreciative of his qualifying afterwards.
"Yes, it was a nice qualifying. Luckily, the weather was okay. It rained a bit, but at least we could do a decent qualifying. Everything worked well. On every tyre set we could do a good lap time, also thinking about Q3 not knowing if it would dry. Luckily we got through Q1 and Q2," Verstappen said at Spa.
What Verstappen thought of his qualifying
"The car worked well in the wet conditions. I could do my laps, which is tricky in the wet. It will be warmer tomorrow, normally no rain. So it's all about tyre degradation. We have to make sure we are good at that. I know I have to go ten places to the back, so this was the best I could do. I don't know how quick we will be tomorrow (Sunday). I hope we will be in the mix to try to move forward."
On the start of the race and the chaos at turn one, Verstappen stated: "The race can be lost at turn one, so we have to see what happens at the start. We'll go from there. It's a long race." Can Verstappen win? "We are not making it easy for ourselves in the battle we are in. Tomorrow is dry, it will be a tough battle. Hopefully, we can battle with the Ferraris and Mercedes, and with luck, maybe we can challenge McLaren."