Verstappen expects overtaking to be difficult at Madrid’s new Madring circuit after qualifying third for the Spanish Grand Prix behind Norris and Antonelli
MADRID: Max Verstappen believes it will be almost impossible for him to overtake his rivals on the new and challenging hybrid Madring circuit in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen, who admits he dislikes street tracks, conceded that he was impressed with a lot of the work done to create the Spanish capital’s new Formula One venue after he qualified third for Red Bull on Saturday.
World champion Lando Norris took pole for McLaren ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, who leads the title race ahead of his team-mate George Russell by 66 points.
“Overall, the event itself is very cool,” said Verstappen of the circuit built near Madrid’s main airport. “They’ve done a great job.
“But in terms of, if you want to have better racing, overtaking, I think there can be a few corners that can be changed.”
Asked if he could challenge Norris for victory, he said: “That would be tough. I mean, even best-case scenario and you’re faster, you can’t pass.
“There are no corners where you can pass — so you need to rely on people ‘degging’ (severe tyre wear) very aggressively.
“The long runs were very tough (during practice) with a lot of deg for everyone, so that will probably be the key point tomorrow, but even with that I need to still figure out a corner where to pass.”
Antonelli agreed with the Dutchman.
“We don’t really know how the hard tyre is, how resilient it is, so tomorrow we might have two stops or three stops,” he said. “We have to see.”
Verstappen added: “I like the grip. They did a good job with the asphalt, even though in some places it’s a bit too bumpy already for a new track.”
