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Max Verstappen, who will be taking a grid penalty for the main race at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday for taking a new internal combustion engine, turbochargers, MGU-Hs, and new MGU-Ks, set the fastest lap in Saturday's qualifying session. The Dutchman has absolutely dominated the 2022 season so far and returned to the track after the summer break in the same winning form, as indicated by his domination in qualifying this afternoon. Due to the grid penalty, Max Verstappen will be starting the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix in fifteenth position despite setting the fastest lap in qualifying.
In a post-qualifying media interaction, the Red Bull driver admitted that he would like to see himself on the podium this weekend. He said:
“It was an amazing qualifying but the whole weekend we have been really on it. The car has been working really well and we have basically been trying to fine tune it and it all came together in qualifying. Of course, I had to be careful with the amount of tyres I was using. But I was very happy with my lap. It's great to be here, it is an amazing track with amazing fans and I hope they had a good day.”
He continued:
“We need to move forward. With a car like this it would be a shame to not be on the podium.”
Christian Horner explains why Max Verstappen took the grid penalty in Belgium
Max Verstappen is one of six drivers to take a penalty this weekend in Belgium. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted that this is one of the two "easiest" circuits to overtake on, with Bahrain being the second one.
Speaking about the penalty, the Briton said:
“You look strategically at the calendar, I think we felt it was particularly tight to get to the end of the year with the engine allocation we have. So you then look at the circuits coming up – Zandvoort, you don’t want to take it there; Monza is actually harder to overtake than you think; Singapore, you don’t want to take it there; Japan’s tricky to overtake.”
He added:
“I think the problem with Zandvoort is it’s narrow, it’s twisty, it’s very, very hard to overtake. Here, probably the smallest overtaking delta needed of the season – here and Bahrain are probably two of the easiest circuits on the calendar to actually make an overtake.”
Max Verstappen currently leads the Driver Standings with an 80-point advantage over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
