12/05/2019
NEWS STORY
Despite his best efforts, Max Verstappen was 'only' able to qualify fourth for the Spanish GP, albeit ahead of Charles Leclerc.
However, almost a full second off Valtteri Bottas' stunning Q3 pace, the Dutch youngster admits that he and his team cannot feasibly take on Mercedes and is therefore battling Ferrari for the runner-up position.
"If you compare to Mercedes we are lacking quite a bit," said the youngster. "In that perspective I think we're not where we want to be. We can be very honest about that.
"I'm not here to qualify fourth," he added, "but of course I'm happy to qualify between the Ferraris, but as a team we want to challenge the number 1, and that is Mercedes.
"I think we have a realistic chance of fighting with Ferrari, we are quite close, but Mercedes is a different story," he admitted.