Max Verstappen believes ‘attention to detail’ was the key to pole in Bahrain, and will again be the differentiator during Saturday’s Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s 1:29.179s was enough to sit 0.228s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who is set to join the reigning champion on the front row.
Despite a dominant run in 2023 which saw the Dutchman claim 19 victories and 13 pole positions, the convergence of the field over the winter break meant that Verstappen was not a shoe-in for pole.
“I think it was just a very tight qualifying,” Verstappen said. “I think it was just also very tricky conditions with the wind this whole weekend.
“Just if you can get the lap together immediately, you can find one, one and a half tenths in a corner. It was good for us in Q2, especially Q3 I would say.
“But yeah, I think throughout the whole of qualifying, you could see the gaps were super close, and I think you never really knew who was going to be on pole heading into Q3. So I think that was very exciting to see.”
While Verstappen may have held a two-tenth buffer to the chasing Leclerc, little more than half a second covered the top nine in qualifying.
Asked whether he felt the field was closer than this time last year, the Red Bull driver said: “It feels like it, because all the way until qualifying, I didn’t have a good feeling, whereas last year I think it was a bit better.
“We were a bit stronger throughout the whole weekend. So we’ll see how that will evolve.
“I mean we’ve done quite a few long runs now, to the point where you almost get bored of it. But yeah. I’m confident that we have a good race car.
“But I think also what you saw already yesterday in the long runs, the gaps are small, and it’s about attention to detail that will make the difference also tomorrow.”
Earlier in the weekend, the three-time champion had been heard bemoaning his RB20’s setup and also cited concerns regarding the smoothness of the gearbox.
Clarifying those complaints, Verstappen said: “I mean, that is something that has been around for quite a while and you always try to optimise these things but that was not really the balance problem of the car.
“It was just trying to get in the right window with the front axle and the rear axle of the car, so you are either on the front axle or the rear or the other way around and it was all about trying to find that middle way and feel a bit more comfortable.
“Around a track like this, which is quite hard on tyres, the tarmac is very aggressive and one little slide or front lock up can cost you a lot of lap time. So it is about small little things that improve the car quite a bit.”
