02/09/2023
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "It was very close all the way through quali and Ferrari have been quick throughout the whole weekend.
"From our side we did everything we could to be as competitive as possible and I was happy with the lap in Q3, so nothing really to complain about. It was just not enough for pole but we know we have a good race car. It is all about the race pace and if we have better race pace, like normal, we will try to put the pressure on them. I am happy with how we set up the car for the race and hopefully that will pay off on Sunday. I know the win is something that could happen. If it's 10 in a row that would be amazing, but we have to execute the race in the best possible way to achieve that."
Sergio Perez: "Today wasn't a great day. Adding a new engine and missing a large part of FP3 today was not ideal as it meant that we didn't get to run the soft tyres before going into qualifying, so we were less prepared for Q3. Overall, I don't think we maximised our performance and showed what we could do today. The Team, however, did a tremendous job turning the car around in time for qualifying. We had a good Friday and great race pace yesterday but today we just didn't capitalise on our performance. Tomorrow I am optimistic that we can still show our strong pace and we will do our very best to come through the field."
Christian Horner: "A very impressive lap from Max to get on the front row. We knew from this morning that the Ferraris were going to be incredibly quick over a lap and in the end there was only a couple of centimetres difference between the two of them. Checo recovered well from missing track time in FP3 and an engine change to line up P5 makes for an exciting race tomorrow."