{"id":318737,"date":"2025-11-30T14:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318737\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T14:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:43:10","slug":"verstappen-needs-to-cut-a-corner-to-match-piastris-race-pace-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318737\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen needs to “cut a corner” to match Piastri’s race pace \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> expects it will be \u201ctough\u201d for him to fight the McLaren drivers in Qatar Grand Prix despite the improvements Red Bull have made to their car\u2019s balance.<\/p>\n

He will start today\u2019s race third behind his championship rivals Oscar Piastri<\/a> and Lando Norris. Verstappen took fourth in yesterday\u2019s sprint race after complaining about excessive bouncing in his car.<\/p>\n

He said his RB21 felt \u201cbetter\u201d after the set-up changes Red Bull made before qualifying. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to cancel out a bit the issues that we had yesterday, which felt a little bit nicer, but [were] still there,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, I\u2019m just not really having enough front grip still, which is then limiting you a bit around the lap here, especially with all these long medium-speed corners. That basically doesn\u2019t allow you to push harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what happened also in qualifying. We tried to make the best out of it in terms of prep, making sure that we\u2019re on top of everything with what we can change. It was alright, the final lap was good but I was just limited with the issues that I\u2019m experiencing at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen said there are \u201cunfortunately still some limitations\u201d in the car which he has dealt with all season. \u201cThey stay in there, but they\u2019ve been in the car for a while now. It\u2019s not like it suddenly just arrived here and we don\u2019t know how to solve it or whatever. It\u2019s been a weakness for us this season, especially in these long, medium-speed corners.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started the sprint race strongly, pressuring Lando Norris<\/a> for third place, but had to settle for fourth as his tyres began to fade. Verstappen said the McLaren has a clear pace advantage towards the end of stints when their tyres are worn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be tough,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the sprint [race] I tried but then we fell into that window where we just struggle a lot on the tyres and we don\u2019t seem to really be able to keep up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe final laps of Oscar in the sprint, I need to cut a corner to do that. So, it will be maybe a little bit better, but yeah, it will be tough, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free<\/a><\/p>\n

Miss nothing from RaceFans<\/p>\n

Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:<\/p>\n

2025 Qatar Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 Qatar Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen expects it will be \u201ctough\u201d for him to fight the McLaren drivers in Qatar Grand Prix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[167097,64,63,825,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-2025-qatar-grand-prix","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-max-verstappen","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}