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Anthony Davidson believes Max Verstappen did well to 'hold his nerve' and brave the elements on his way to claiming pole position in qualifying for the 2022 F1 Imola GP.
Davidson is a former driver-turned-analyst who is now plying his trade with Sky Sports.
The Briton was full of praise for all the drivers who were able to navigate around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari during the rain-marred sessions.
He said:
"I think all the drivers who made it through to the end unscathed had to really hold their nerve. We saw many mistakes as anticipated and predicted before the session, we saw them in FP1 as well. I wasn't surprised to see the amount of red flags we had but maybe a little bit trigger happy."
Five red-flag stoppages set a new record, and even experienced drivers were caught out by the conditions. Davidson went on to add:
"I agree with the commentators during qualifying there that when [Kevin] Magnussen went off, the car was still running and moving backwards and forwards freely and the red flag came out and I think that one should have just been a double waved yellow. [Max] Verstappen held his nerve and he went off the track there even after putting that magnificent lap together. I expected Ferrari to have the pace, we saw it in practice and we thought it would materialize in qualifying but it didn't."
Max Verstappen pipped Charles Leclerc with a time of 1:27.999 and will now start the sprint race ahead of the Ferrari man in P2.
Former F1 driver does not believe "anyone is faster" than Max Verstappen on the 2022 F1 grid
Former F1 driver Eddie Irvine does not think there is a driver who is currently faster than Max Verstappen on the grid. However, he also highlighted the Dutchman's propensity for mistakes.
In an interview, Irvine elaborated on how this could be the Red Bull driver's undoing in the championship battle against Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Irvine said:
"I don’t believe anyone is faster than [Max] Verstappen, but he still makes a lot of mistakes. [Charles] Leclerc doesn’t do that. Having such an incident in qualifying is generally not so relevant."
"Verstappen makes the mistake of always letting himself be carried away in terms of aggressiveness. [Leclerc] is very intelligent, has a personality, and is mature. [In] that way Verstappen seems a bit ‘younger’ to me mentally, but he has been given a lot of talent."
Verstappen has an uphill task ahead of him with regard to catching Leclerc after he suffered two DNFs in the opening three races of the season.
The reigning world champion is 46 points behind the championship leader from Ferrari but has 20 race weekends still to go.
