MAX VERSTAPPEN SPEAKS OUT AFTER FAILING WHERE LEWIS HAMILTON SUCCEEDED AT CHINESE GP

Max Verstappen felt like he was "driving on ice" as he struggled in qualifying for the first Sprint race of the year.

He and the rest of the grid had just an hour of practice to prepare this weekend's competitive action at the Chinese Grand Prix, at a Shanghai circuit which hasn't hosted F1 cars since 2019. But that didn't prepare them from the sudden downpour which threw all their data out of the window.

It came down to who could master the conditions better and the Brits were the class of the field. Lando Norris secured pole position with a lap more than a second quicker than anyone else, while Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes "came alive" on the way to second on the grid.

Verstappen, though, had to settle for fourth as Red Bull struggled to adjust to the conditions. Speaking afterwards, the Dutchman spoke of the problems he faced on track as the rain fell.

He said: "It was incredibly slippery. I struggled a lot to get the temperature in the tyres, so that's why it very difficult to keep the car on track. It never really switched on for me, so it was just like driving on ice.

"That's why I think it's quite deserved where we are in qualifying - it was just not really working for me in the wet, even though I think in the dry we look quite good, so I'm of course quite happy with that."

As Verstappen alluded to, the balance of power looks very different depending on the weather. And Hamilton admitted that as he told reporters he would be praying for more rain over the rest of the race weekend.

The seven-time F1 champion said: "I'm so happy - as soon as I saw the rain coming I got excited because, in dry conditions, we're not quick enough. When the rain came in I thought I'd have a better opportunity, and that's when it all came together.

"It depends what the conditions [for the Sprint race] will be. If it's like that, maybe we'll have a chance of being somewhere up there. But if it's dry, naturally the Ferraris and Red Bulls will come by. Maybe we can hold off some of the others."

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was delighted with Hamilton's performance and said: "The driving is most important in the wet, but it showed that it was about tyre preparation. We did the right things on the final run and the tyres were in the sweet spot. Combined with a great drive, that made the time."

2024-04-19T11:15:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd