Verstappen “not very confident” of keeping Piastri behind in F1 Saudi GP

Max Verstappen says he is “not very confident” of beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Jeddah on Sunday. The reigning world champion’s Red Bull claimed pole by a mere 0.010s after the McLarens had looked faster all weekend, with Piastri joining him on the front row. The other McLaren of Lando Norris is starting from 10th after the Briton crashed on his first Q3 lap.

Compared to last weekend’s disastrous Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull has found a better set-up direction on its RB21 for Jeddah’s high-speed swoops. The Saudi circuit’s smoother tarmac has also painted a different picture.

But McLaren still looked the better package over long runs with its superior rear tyre management, leaving to Verstappen talking down his chances of converting pole into a 65th career win.

“Up until now, [I’m] not very confident, to be honest,” said Verstappen. “My long runs weren’t particularly great compared to Oscar or Lando. I’m going to give it everything I have, for sure. Does it mean that I have enough? I don’t know.

“The car definitely took a bit of a step forward compared to what we were testing on Friday, so I hope that will help our tyre life out as well. I’m going to give it a go.”

Interestingly, Verstappen’s main worry is how Red Bull will be able to keep the medium under control. He hasn’t run the hard compound, which Pirelli believes is the best race tyre.

“I don’t think it’ll be enough to be super competitive, especially on the medium,” he explained. “I don’t know about the hard, I haven’t touched it. It just shows that when it gets a bit warmer, like FP3, that’s where we are really lacking. In the race, you stabilise with a high temperature, and that’s where in general most teams are struggling more.”

Piastri fancied his chances of taking a third win of the campaign and hopes it will be easier to overtake than at Suzuka’s Japanese Grand Prix, where both McLarens were stuck behind Verstappen all race despite being quicker.

“I think we’ve got good pace. Red Bull and Max certainly look more competitive here than they did last week,” the Australian said. “Suzuka is not a completely different layout to somewhere like here with a lot of high-speed corners, so it kind of makes sense to me at least that they’re a bit more competitive, and we’ll see if that translates to the race tomorrow.

“I’m feeling confident in what we’ve got. There are a lot of DRS zones around here, which is a nice difference to Suzuka. So, let’s see if we can make some progress.”