22/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "We have not performed the way we should be performing all weekend, it has been really difficult to get the most out of the car.
"I was struggling with putting the balance together, front to rear. We tried a lot of different things in terms of set-up but it didn't really work. When you are struggling in qualifying you can only try one or two things and then when you really push you fall out of the window again. My second lap in Q3 I tried to push a bit more and the car wasn't there. I think our upgrades worked but that didn't really show. The balance I had in qualifying won't necessarily be a bad thing for tomorrow. Everything in the race is a lot calmer and more stable, whereas in qualifying you really push it to the limit on the balance and can feel more issues. Our long run looks competitive so that is positive. It is still going to be tough to get in front but if we are better on tyres then I predict a good race. Nothing is lost, we have a good race car and it will be a good battle with them tomorrow."
Sergio Perez: "Today was such a tight battle that was dominated by the compounds and the new tyre format. You don't get many learnings on the tyres so we don't have too much information from them for this weekend. In Q3, I had a poor sector one on the last lap which set us back, however, we have had a solid day and are focusing all our efforts on tomorrow. I believe we can be competitive and aim to finish on the podium as we have a good race car and a strong race pace. The track here is harder to overtake on but I am confident we will have a good performance: everything is to play for on race day."
Christian Horner: "A good qualifying today from both our drivers but it was a big lap from Lewis and he did very well to secure pole. Max didn't seem too comfortable with his set up, he wasn't able to find his sweet spot, you could see he was fighting the car slightly. I don't think he was getting what he wanted from the car in quali as he seemed more comfortable in the long runs we did earlier today so we will be looking into it this evening. Great to see Cheo in Q3 although I know he wont be happy with P9 but its been a weird grid with a lot of movement. He will race well tomorrow though, we just need to ensure we give him the right strategy. It will be 10 degrees hotter which will make things interesting, especially with the balance, but we tend to have better race pace than we do in qualifying so lets see what tomorrow brings."
Check out our Saturday gallery from the Hungaroring here.