Verstappen targets surprise victory after Red Bull Singapore progress
Max Verstappen believes he has a “shot” at a surprise Singapore Grand Prix victory after qualifying in second.
Verstappen struggled on Friday and was almost a second slower than Norris in third practice, yet found considerable pace in qualifying.
The reigning world champion was only 0.203s down on his title rival’s time at the Marina Bay Circuit in Q3 and will start alongside him.
Qualifying was not entirely smooth for Verstappen, who saw his first Q3 lap deleted due to a double-waved yellow flag after Carlos Sainz crashed.
Red Bull expected Singapore to be a difficult circuit for the team but Verstappen was pleased that the RB20 continued to improve throughout Saturday.
“I think the whole of qualifying actually went quite well,” Verstappen said. “We managed to improve the car run after run already with FP3, and I’m happy to be on the front row if you look at where we came from yesterday.
“Q3 was tough, you know, your lap gets, of course, cancelled with the double yellow then everyone only has one run to do the lap so you don’t want to overdo it.
“You want to stay within the limit. I take second, I’m happy with that.”
Due to Sainz crashing at the final corner in Q3 with eight minutes remaining, the vast majority of drivers, including Verstappen, only had one hot lap.
It made for a challenging end to qualifying, although Verstappen has put himself in contention for a surprise victory by qualifying on the front row.
The Dutchman was pleased with how he managed the difficult Q3 and recognises he has a chance at winning in Singapore for the first time.
“They’re always quite difficult,” added Verstappen. “You know, tyres can give you a lot of lap time or lose you a lot of lap time.
“I think today, for us in qualifying it all worked quite well, so I was happy with that. And yeah, here we are, second tomorrow.
“Of course, bit difficult to say [if we can win]. Singapore, a lot of things can happen, but at least we have a shot at it like this.”
