Max Verstappen Ready To Bounce Back In Qatar

After seeing his championship lead reduced in Brazil, Max Verstappen is ready to get back to winning ways as F1 heads to Qatar for the first time.

Max Verstappen

‘Yes it was a tough weekend, in general we were a little bit off pace to Mercedes but nevertheless we only lost a couple of points so it’s not too bad. Of course I would always like to win but we had a good battle and to come home in second is okay. We’ve got three races to go so it’s all about pushing and doing everything we can as a Team to maximise performance on track.

‘I think I’ve only been to Qatar once for a prize giving so I’m looking forward to going back. It’s a new track and we’ve obviously never been there so I’m excited to see how it’s going to be driving the track, hopefully we can perform well there. It always looks cool when we see Moto GP race there!

‘It’s hard to say at the moment but let’s see when we get there. I’ve driven it a little bit on the simulator to understand the corners but it will be good to see the track in real life. The practice sessions will of course be very important for everyone to get up to speed and understand the car set up.’

Sergio Perez

‘Yes, we were very unlucky on Sunday to miss the podium, it was basically just down to bad luck. But this is racing, and these things happen so there is no point dwelling on it, I just need to move on and look to Qatar and getting back on the podium there.

‘I think we will do a deep analysis as a Team and Qatar is going to be a very different track to Sao Paulo so things will change. Hopefully we can be a lot stronger there, across the whole weekend. For me also, it is nice to be back to the normal qualifying format to see how we line up in terms of outright pace.

‘I think we will be competitive over there and hopefully give them a hard time. It is a really fast track, with a lot of downforce required so we will see how quick we can be. I don’t remember driving there very well, it was a long time ago so I don’t believe there is much advantage for me! There are three races remaining of the season and still so much to play for. Brazil was a very fun race so let’s hope for the same this weekend.’