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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has heaped praise on Max Verstappen for claiming pole during a mostly wet 2022 F1 Imola GP qualifying.
The entire sprint qualification had rain as a recurring feature, with five red-flag stoppages to boot. Despite the unusual nature of the sessions, Verstappen held his own against Charles Leclerc in the more dominant Ferrari F1-75.
The Dutchman's early lap of 1:27.999 in Q3 was strong enough to get Red Bull their second pole of the season.
He earned praise for his performance from Horner, who said:
“He [Max Verstappen] did a super job. It was an unusual qualifying and the one lap that ended up counting was the one that we banked. It looked even at the end there the circuit might go quick again but there was too much rain for anyone to respond and another red flag. So it is a shame for Checo [Sergio Perez], because he would have been up there as well with a clean lap, he had a big lock up but that is encouraging for the race tomorrow.”
Horner went on to add, saying:
“The Ferrari looked better at getting the heat in the tyre, we were struggling to find the temperature and it was taking more and more laps. We managed to find the balance and Max managed to take the lap at a critical moment. Obviously now the challenge will be what will the weather do tomorrow. We have to get a good start, convert it and go from there.”
Both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc will start on the front row for the 21-lap sprint race on Saturday and could treat us to some more wheel-to-wheel action.
Max Verstappen keen to turn his mistakes into lessons after tough start to 2022 season
Max Verstappen reiterated the importance of learning from mistakes in his quest to grow and improve as an individual.
In a video for Red Bull's sponsor Bybit, the reigning world champion elaborated on this idea after a torrid start to the 2022 campaign. He said:
“I think it’s a constant progression of working together with the team around you. You get more and more experience of the situations you have been in. Of course, it is never one straight lineup, you have difficult moments and setbacks and you learn from it and I think, at the end of the day, you need to make mistakes or have setbacks to ultimately become a better individual.”
The 24-year-old went on to add, saying:
“It’s just about trying to be better by doing little things. There is not one particular aspect where I think I can do a lot better, it is just about keeping learning and having that motivation to learn because standing still is basically going backwards. It’s all about the attention to detail as well to try and keep learning and just become a little bit better in all different kinds of areas.”
Verstappen goes into the sprint race at Imola 46 points behind championship leader Leclerc. With two chances to score points this season, the Dutchman's comeback story could begin with a good performance in Imola.
