Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is “very happy” to qualify second for the 2025 Chinese Sprint after a tricky practice session.
Verstappen finished 16th quickest in Practice after he aborted his soft-tyre sprint qualifying simulation but come the actual sprint qualifying session, he was able to recover to qualify second and 0.018 seconds off Lewis Hamilton who claimed his first pole at Ferrari following his move to the Scuderia for this season.
The 27 year-old four-time defending champion consequently was “very happy” with his result after he found himself “quite a bit off” in Practice, yet was able to turn his performance around in the sprint qualifying session.
“The lap was very good: it is always very tough to go from a medium to a soft tyre, so to nail the lap with no references was great for us.
“Of course, when you look at it, we were incredibly close off pole so I am very happy to be second. I don’t think we should have been on the front row and we didn’t make any dramatic changes in the set up.
“We kept trying to maximise everything that we had, especially when we were struggling a bit more for pace. This is good for us and a little motivation boost.”
Verstappen however is wary of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris who qualified third and sixth for McLaren respectively, such is the McLaren’s pace going into the remainder of the weekend.
“The McLarens looked fast up until the last run so it will be hard to keep them behind during the Sprint but hopefully it will be fun.”
