Verstappen: "To win in Madrid? I still need to figure out where to overtake"
Max Verstappen says Red Bull must find a realistic overtaking opportunity if he is to beat Lando Norris to victory in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix at Madrid’s new street circuit.
Verstappen qualified third, just over a tenth of a second behind polesitter Norris and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli. But the Red Bull driver was far from confident that outright race pace would be enough to overcome the grid positions at Madring. The circuit is expected to make overtaking especially difficult, leaving tyre degradation as a potentially decisive factor.
“It will be tough,” Verstappen said. “I mean, even, let’s say, best-case scenario, you are faster, you can’t pass. There are no corners where you can pass. So, you need to rely on people deg-ing very aggressively.”
He added: “The long runs were very tough, a lot of [tyre] deg for everyone, so that will be probably the key point tomorrow. But even with that, I need to still figure out a corner where to pass.”
That assessment underlines the central challenge facing Verstappen: performance alone may not translate into track position. The Madring circuit guide provides further detail on the layout and its overtaking zones.
Red Bull makes progress, but loses time in the final sector
Despite the concern over passing, Verstappen was satisfied with his qualifying session. In terms of his deficit to pole, this was his closest result since Monaco, where he was 0.043 seconds behind Antonelli.
“It was alright,” he said. “I mean, I haven’t been here so much this year in the top three, so for me I think we had a good qualifying.”
Verstappen credited Red Bull with making useful improvements and said the car arrived in a reasonable performance window. However, he identified the final sector as the team’s main limitation, with the car unable to match its competitors’ deployment.
He described his progress from Q1 through Q3 as smooth and said there was little left on the table. The remaining deficit, he explained, came from known limitations within the car and the final-sector deployment.
Q2 pace does not tell the whole story
Verstappen topped Q2 by 0.160 seconds over Antonelli, raising the question of whether a stronger qualifying result had been possible. He cautioned against drawing a direct comparison, noting that he was one of the only drivers to use two sets of tyres.
For Verstappen, qualifying and the race remain separate challenges. The car has improved, but Madring’s limited passing opportunities mean tyre degradation—and finding the right corner to attack—could determine whether third place becomes a genuine route to victory.
Simone Scanu
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.