Max Verstappen said being one of the last to run at the end of qualifying made sense for him as he had little to lose if he was unable to complete a lap.
The Red Bull driver claimed pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with one of the last laps of the session.
Rival Lando Norris chose to run first out of the eight drivers who remained at the end of Q3. He later said the decision was a “mistake” as those who ran later enjoyed better track conditions.
Norris was the first driver to complete a lap, and ended up falling to seventh place. Verstappen was the seventh driver to set a time, followed by team mate Yuki Tsunoda.
McLaren chose to send Norris out first to ensure he had a chance to set a time. The session had already been red-flagged on six occasions due to crashes.
However Verstappen said a further crash would likely have prevented all drivers from setting a time and therefore he had little to lose. He was fourth in the standings, behind the three drivers who had already set times and ahead of Norris, when the session resumed.
“It wouldn’t really matter too much because I think if anyone would have crashed, then there would have been no laps for the people that didn’t have a lap,” said Verstappen.
He pointed out that running first, as Norris did, meant missing out on the benefit of the slipstream from cars ahead. “I just didn’t want to be first because you lose a bit to the line,” he said.
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“So that meant that we were almost at the back, but that was okay. That was a call that we made.”
The repeated interruptions meant the session lasted almost two hours. Drivers also had to contend with very strong gusts of wind and occasional light rain showers.
Verstappen said that made for an especially difficult qualifying session. “It was just a very long qualifying in general with all the red flags, so you never got into a rhythm.
“Trying to complete laps was already difficult enough with what was going on. Getting the tyres in the window on your warm-up lap is very tough around here.
“Honestly, I was quite happy with how Q1 and Q2 went. But Q3 was a very long wait and then choosing what tyres to use for the final run — there was a bit of rain around in places — [was] not easy at all.”
“This track is already hard enough without anything,” he added. “With the strong winds that we had today the car was moving around a lot — understeer, oversteer in different places, even on the straight, going left to right.
“So, to basically nail everything, but also [with] the big interruptions that we had, it was just very tricky today. But luckily, I think we did quite well.”
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