Max Verstappen hails ‘miracle’ as Red Bull turnaround complete with Qatar pole

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Max Verstappen said “a miracle happened” after he guided his Red Bull car to pole in Qatar despite every sign suggesting he would not be in the running.

A P8 finish in the sprint would not have filled Verstappen with much hope heading into qualifying but he praised the work done by the Red Bull team to give him a car capable of securing pole.

Max Verstappen hails Red Bull turnaround

Given he was recently crowned four-time World Champion, Verstappen was still considered in the running for pole but the pace of the McLarens and George Russell suggested the Dutchman was an outside bet rather than any kind of favourite.

But Verstappen upset the odds to nip ahead of Russell and suggested that “a miracle happened” in the car’s turnaround over the course of Saturday.

“It couldn’t have been worse,” he said of the sprint. “So we just looked at it and, I mean, it’s not all super clear, but we were like ‘we have to go and try this direction.’

“We put it on the car, and it worked. And of course, you know, a lot of people are back at the factory analysing a lot of stuff already throughout the whole weekend, but at the end of the day, you have to make the decisions also on track if you want to do it or not. Simulator is running in the background as well. And yeah, a miracle happened.”
Probed on how different the car felt, Verstappen said it felt “hooked up” throughout the lap

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“Quite different. Just felt a bit more hooked up on entry, mid corner. Everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. So I found it straight away from lap one. All just felt a bit more consistent, and that’s exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive.

“I think from the first lap in Q1 it felt a lot more promising. But then to get the tyres in the right window is very tough. So then it went away a little bit, then it came back again and then luckily for Q3 I think it was there. Very happy with how we turned it around.

“I did think that maybe we could improve the car a little bit but not like this, that’s for sure.”

As for Sunday’s race, Verstappen suggested that was “still a bit of a question mark.”

“I did feel that yesterday, we’re not too far off in qualifying, and then I felt like we were quite far off in the sprint. So this is great, you know, to be on pole, but I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be, let’s say, enough to really be the outright fastest.”