Verstappen explains Red Bull recovery that led to “flawless” F1 British GP pole

Max Verstappen says Red Bull turning around his car set-up from Friday to Saturday helped him grab British Grand Prix pole after “understeering to the moon” in Formula 1 practice.

Verstappen reported severe understeer throughout Friday practice, with Red Bull moving towards a lower downforce rear wing for Saturday as it tried to dial in the RB21’s balance.

This allowed Verstappen to be in the mix for pole, and the four-time champion stunned McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris by delivering a spotless performance on his final Q3 lap, grabbing his fourth pole of the 2025 season.

Verstappen defeated Piastri by 0.103 seconds, with Norris just 0.188s in arrears in an extremely tight qualifying session. Sixth-placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was only 0.229s removed from pole, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton also in the mix.

Explaining his turnaround from Friday, Verstappen said: “We looked a bit slow yesterday on the other wing, plus I was just understeering to the moon, so I had to try and reduce that understeer, and it seemed to work.

“It was very difficult to balance and today we definitely improved the understeer and that just allowed me to push a bit more because I think it just caught us out yesterday, which we didn’t expect to happen, so then you need to work around with the tools that you have and luckily we went in the right direction with it.”

Team principal Christian Horner praised Verstappen for another “wonderful lap,” but also paid tribute to the Milton Keynes team for its role in the turnaround in Red Bull’s fortunes.

“The engineering team has done a great job overnight, they’ve worked hard on the car,” he told Sky.

“We’ve added a bit of performance to the car, and we’ve balanced it. It’s tricky conditions with the gusting weather around here, but all credit to Milton Keynes. Max has delivered as he always does, so good performance.”

The lap initially drew comparisons to Verstappen’s stunning Suzuka pole, but Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko didn’t feel that the Dutchman’s Silverstone performance came out of nowhere this time.

“No, actually we were expecting to be on the front row,” he told ServusTV. “We saw on Friday that, if we could get rid of the understeer, we’d be right up there. Step by step, the balance improved.

“We made a small adjustment after the first run in Q3, and then, of course, came the Max factor – an incredible lap, flawless once again.”