Breaking news
Formula 1 British GP
Verstappen: Warmer conditions wouldn't have changed result
Max Verstappen thinks he would have still qualified third behind both Mercedes drivers for the British Grand Prix even if the hot practice conditions had continued on Saturday.
Luke Smith
Edited: Aug 1, 2020, 4:03 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Verstappen was able to lead first practice at Silverstone as the temperature reached 35ºC on Friday, which was the third-hottest day on record in Great Britain.
Red Bull appeared to match Mercedes for pace in the warmer conditions, only for Verstappen to finish over a second off Lewis Hamilton's pole position time in qualifying.
It meant Verstappen ended up third on the grid as Valtteri Bottas completed a front row lock-out for Mercedes, three-tenths of a second off Hamilton's lap.
Verstappen said while hotter conditions in qualifying would have worked in Red Bull's favour, he doubted it would have been enough to make up the one-second gap.
"We would still be quite a few tenths down," Verstappen said when asked by Motorsport.com if Red Bull was closer to Mercedes in warmer temperatures.
"I don't think the warm weather makes such a big difference. If it would have been 35 degrees today, I would still have been third.
"It would have helped maybe a little bit, but not that much."
Read Also:
Mercedes has taken pole position for each of the first four races of the 2020 season, enjoying a margin over more than a second over Red Bull for the last three Q3 sessions.
Verstappen said he was not surprised by the 1.022 seconds gap to Hamilton in the final classification, and was content with his qualifying performance.
"No, I'm not surprised. We are clearly still learning about the car, trying to improve it," Verstappen said.
"But I think overall the qualifying itself was pretty OK. I was pretty much all the time in third. There was not much more I think I could do.
"My final lap in Q3 was pretty good. I had a bit of a moment out of the final corner. It's a big gap, just tried to do the best we can.
"For us, that's third at the moment, so we did that. It's a better position than seventh to start the race."
Asked it he could take the fight to Mercedes in the race on Sunday, Verstappen replied: "Normally not, but we just hope to have a clean start.
"From there onwards, I just try to do the best I can in the car.
"If that's try to follow them a bit, I think we can be happy with that, and score some points."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vettel: British GP weekend can't get much worse
Next article Hulkenberg concedes he didn't get everything out of the car
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Luke Smith
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
Formula 1
Formula 1 Jul 22, 2025
1998 Belgian GP: When the Schumachers went to war
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Formula 1
Formula 1 Apr 19, 2023
The race that transformed perceptions of Red Bull
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
Formula 1
Formula 1 Feb 18, 2023
Hamilton in the process of selecting Brad Pitt’s co-star for F1 movie
More from
Max Verstappen
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Formula 1
Formula 1 1 h
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Latest news
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
30 min
Iker Lecuona felt significant differences between Ducati's GP25 and GP26
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
1 h
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 17 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: ECR
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe