Verstappen romped dwelling to a 13-second win over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in Shanghai’s 19-lap dash, earlier than happening to say a dominant pole for Sunday’s correct grand prix as properly.
An extended-time opponent of the dash format, Verstappen stated he was extra happy together with his pole place than together with his dash win, though he did concede its rejigged format with two separate parc ferme durations is a giant enchancment.
“It is a extra logical and nicer format,” Verstappen stated. “I used to be nonetheless happier with pole than with the dash race, in fact.
Elaborating on his opinion to Sky Sports activities F1, Verstappen added: “I did suppose it is nicer than what we had, simply that you simply additionally in a position to make some adjustments to the automobile after the dash.
“The one factor which was a little bit bit bizarre was that you simply did a race and then you definately return into qualifying [mode].
“Perhaps we should always do qualifying after which the race. I do not know however these are simply issues to fine-tune possibly. However total, positively higher than what we used to have.”
Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing RB20
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Verstappen stated he and his race engineer opted to alter the Pink Bull RB20’s set-up forward of qualifying and Sunday’s race regardless of his dominant dash win.
“After the dash race, it gave us a number of extra concepts for the automobile and I feel the automobile labored even higher in qualifying now,” he defined.
“It positively offers you extra of an concept with the degradation, what to take a look at, what to work on.
“The wind path goes to alter once more tomorrow, so the steadiness of the automobile in some corners will likely be a bit totally different once more. However I feel if the automobile is barely even half nearly as good as what it was within the dash, I feel we’ll be alright.”
Verstappen established one more landmark for Pink Bull by clinching the group’s a hundredth pole place in F1, with the Dutchman answerable for 37 of these.
“Earlier than I jumped within the automobile, Christian [Horner] advised me if I get pole right this moment, it will be quantity 100 for the group,” he stated.
“That is an unbelievable achievement for the entire group. After all, additionally a giant contribution from Seb [Vettel] again within the day. However yeah, implausible.”
Further reporting by Erwin Jaeggi