Verstappen 'held back' in quali but fires up small hopes of a win tomorrow

18:11, 17 May

Updated: 19:00, 17 May

byNorberto Mujica

Max Verstappen qualified in P2 for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and states the tyres held him back in his bid to fight for pole.

Ultimately, Oscar Piastri put his MCL39 on pole. Nevertheless Verstappen wasn't far off. What was the difference? Pirelli's new C6 compound.

"I think compared to yesterday we improved a lot again. The car was a lot nicer to drive. The only problem I think I had in qualifying was basically the faster I wanted to go, the more problems that I had with the tyres just overheating," said the Dutchman to media, including GPblog, after qualifying.

"That was just holding me back. In Q3 in already run one, and then when I tried to go faster, basically on the second run, Sector one was great and then I just ran out of tyres. I just started understeering more and I just tried to keep the lap together really."

"But that's a bit of a shame, I think. You don't really have the tyres to qualify on properly. And, yeah, of course, for tomorrow, we want to make sure that we have the tyres in a window."

Verstappen is hopeful of a good result tomorrow in Imola

As far as the race is concerned Verstappen highlights the importance of a good start and is hopeful the new set-up can help him put up a fight against polesitter Piastri.

"I'll just try to do a good start and then just see where I'm at with the pace because yesterday wasn't particularly good in the long run also, and then just see with the new setup that we have on the car hopefully it all just sticks a bit better on the tarmac and hopefully just in general a bit more competitive."

On if the field will use Pirelli's C6 compound for the race tomorrow, the Dutchman is clear. "I don't know yet. I don't think many people will touch the C6 if you need to do a lot of laps in a row, but we'll see tomorrow."